Tattoo!
by DarkMasterStarr
Summary: The word "Genius" is applied to a ninja who has a high aptitude in everything in the Ninja Field. However, him and "Genius" didn't really work together. At least the kid got heart, right? Semi-Powerful Naruto, Sadistic Kakashi! Pairing Unknown yet.
1. Prologue: Body Art!

Key

"..." Human(s)' talking

_'…' Human(s)' thinking_

"**..." Demon(s)'/Summon(s)'/Other's talking**

_**'…' Demon(s)'/Summon(s)'/ Other's talking**_

"_**..." Ethereal voice(s)' talking**_

"_..." Hybrid of Human talking/thinking (Only in the Awakening)/Emphasis_

"..." Hybrid of Human-Ethereal/Human-Demon Talking

_'_…_' __Hybrid of Human-Ethereal/Human-Demon Talking_

**Warning: Rated "T" for crude, bad language, sexual tension and violence. Probably will be some "M" rated chapter in the future.**

… Screw it, it IS "M" rated. Not for anybody who isn't 16, 17, or anybody who's gotten some maturity in their brains. If you don't... then, you're still welcomed inside, my friends, because this is all BUT mature.

;D

---

_**Prologue**_

"Dozing off again, dobe?"

"Eh?"

"WAKE UP!" A more feminine, enraged voice yelled in his ears. "You been asleep all through Kakashi-sensei introduction!"

Young Naruto Uzumaki, age 12, blinked as he sat more up. He looked as a disgruntled Sakura Haruno, an indifferent Sasuke Uchiha and a sheepish, almost uncaring Kakashi Hatake, all of them staring – Sakura was more glaring – at him. Naruto, regarding his composure as he drowsily sat up from grogginess, said with a shrug, "Ah well, it must not been _too_ important."

A quick blow from Sakura told him to be quiet and stop being rude. Even with the punch to his head, Naruto blandly stared at his crush. Despite being his crush, he would choose sleep over her any day of the week. Speaking of sleep, he seemed to get those strange dreams over and over again. Weird dreams that lately left a toll on his body, leaving him at nights, mulling over them and just now was the dream again.... The same old dream of -

"Well since we're all up _now_," Naruto sweatdropped at the sarcasm-laced sentence; half of him really was still thinking about the dream until Kakashi _rudely_ interrupted. "I think introductions are in order of yourself. I told about myself, despite Naruto not hearing it-"

Naruto shrugged again, "Again, probably wasn't missing much."

Surprised that Sakura didn't hit him over, he looked directly at her face. Her face, held a bead of sweat, even blushing in embarrassment a little. Sasuke was almost no different, except he tried to play in a more calmer way. Naruto, himself, sweatdropped at their faces; for once, he was right about something. Apparently the gray-starked-hair cyclops said little to nothing about himself.

"-I think it's good for Pinky to go next." Kakashi lazily pointed to Sakura. The girl, in response, glared balefully at the man.

"My name is Sakura Haruno. My likes are..." Trailing off, she stared at Sasuke with a smile. "My hobbies are...." This time she giggled cutely at Sasuke, who looked dully at her. "And my dreams are..." Once again, she giggled, to a more higher volume.

"And you dislikes?" Kakashi seemed to smile under his mask, as the visible eye he had turned closed.

"Naruto!" She said with a deadpan, even glaring a little at the blond hair boy, to which Naruto didn't even respond to, just with an obvious sad sigh. _'Don't even know why she hates me.'_

'Well isn't that something? Déjà vu all over again.' Kakashi sighed inwardly. _'No real place for a fangirl in the ninja work force. Perhaps I can get her out of that phase.'_

"You, brood-boy. Let's here your introduction." Kakashi averted his attention off of the pink girl, who was more focused on the Uchiha's face. Said Uchiha glared harshly at Kakashi, ignoring Sakura completely.

"My _name _is Sasuke Uchiha. My likes are very little and dislikes are almost none and I have no hobbies. However, I have a desire, no, an _ambition_ to restore my clan and to _kill_ a certain man." Sasuke folded his hands and arms in a tight form, having a face twisted in cold.

Kakashi didn't looked surprised. The cold, murderous words, "I have a desire, ambition to restore my clan and _kill _a certain man" didn't register in Sakura's head. Rather wondering of who Sasuke desired to kill, she choose to look at Sasuke's features and coo, purr almost, at the boy, who look in her opinion downright _sexy _with his scowl on his face. Naruto, however, was different. Naruto scoffed to himself. _'Pfft, leave it to the fucking Uchiha to steal the spotlight just to act cool.'_

Naruto only had hatred for said Uchiha. The boy was a brat in Naruto's eyes. He had women – girls and grown-ass women alike – _fucking_ swooning over him, like HIS Sakura-chan. He had one of the richest houses and family in the country. He had every _single _person in the village kiss his ass, and for what? He didn't even appreciate anything he had! That was Naruto's belief in the Uchiha. Arrogant, aloof, brooding – these words described the Uchiha to Naruto. Even the name gave Naruto a bittersweet taste in his mouth. Naruto was irked greatly by the Uchiha's cool indifference of things, his stubborn and braggart ways. Teammates be _damned_, Naruto would have jumped for the chance to fight Sasuke.

Naruto stared indifferently at the cold, silent gaze Sasuke Uchiha gave to the air. A few awkward seconds past by until Hatake coughed in his fist, showing up a smile that looked faker to Naruto than the last eye-smile. "Well, moving on, let's get to Mr. Sunshine over there. Tell us about you."

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki..." _'What should I say really?' _"....My likes? I guess training, getting stronger and Ramen..." _'Delicious Ramen's on top.' _"...My dislikes?" _'Sasuke, the village, everything ungrateful bastard in the village.' _"I hate the time it takes to prepare Ramen. And my dream is to become the Hokage." _'In order to gain respect.'_

While Sakura and Sasuke were disinterested, apparently because it was the usual from Naruto, Kakashi pondered a little. _'Don't know why, but Hokage-sama said to keep an eye on this boy. He doesn't seem like much anyway.' _Kakashi shrugged. _'Hell, they _all _don't have anything special worthwhile.' _Kakashi watched his students-prospects. With not much interest, as it was much profound with his crossed arms and the flickering boredom in his visible eye, he thought, _'I have a pink-haired genin-aspirer but she would rather gawk at the Uchiha than be a ninja. I have an Uchiha who is too arrogant for his good and has wet dreams of killing his own brother. I have a Ramen-fiend, demon-containing boy who tries to hide away his pain from others.' _

Kakashi shrugged, grinned a little. His coal black eyes darkened more with a little more sadism. _'I'll just have to _break _those bad habits with my training.'_

"You all have made it here; under the law, you are adults. However, you aren't quite Genin _just _yet."

Sakura blinked. "Uh, but what about the Genin exam in school?"

"That?" Kakashi waved off her. "That was just an exam to see if you got the ability to be a Genin. _My_ exam and the exam of all the Jounin-teachers out there, is the _real _exam. This will show if you got the _skills _to become Genin."

"Pfft." The blond boy scoffed. "What's the difference?"

Kakashi found the pinkette and black-blue haired boy nodded silently. Kakashi shrugged. "Well, the difference is _actually_ being one, I guess. It's easy to say you're a Genin when you passed a simple little exam."

Kakashi paused, a little satisfied to see Naruto's face flush in a little shame, especially how much it took him to actually become a Genin. Although, Kakashi admitted, he was probably more well-suited to a battle with another ninja than the other two, especially when the other two didn't have to fend for themselves physically. It was no secret to the Ninja Forces of what the blonde's "situation" was. Last night was just the climax of what he had to do in order to even stand in front of Kakashi Hatake and the others.

Mizuki's betrayal and capture was the talk of the week. Iruka Umino, a chunnin of the school Naruto went to – Kakashi didn't know him personally – reported Naruto for the reason of the defeat and capture of the traitor, despite the kid was tricked into stealing the scroll, Kakashi added. Naruto displayed, according to him, a skill belonging to Jounins and high Chunnins only, plus Sandaime-sama said to keep an eye on Naruto Uzumaki especially. For what exact reason, Kakashi didn't know, but he could guess Naruto knew some skills, despite his former status as "dead-last" in the school. Kakashi shrugged; _Who_ knows really? Only a few people know Naruto's true skill and his task was to find out.

"So, was the other test all for naught?" Sakura asked, surprised at this. Kakashi, in the corner of his eye watched Naruto scowl, anger hardly contained, due to his body language. Sasuke didn't bother to nod or make a sound of wonder. He just looked at Kakashi.

Kakashi coughed, feeling a little tickle in his throat. "Well, I wouldn't say it was all for naught. Despite this being the real test to show whether or not you have the skills to be one, the other one was to see if you can be. If you have the ability to do something, but not the will or skills, it won't matter, know what I'm saying?" He rhetorically questioned; he really didn't expect anybody to understand, despite the three nodding wordlessly. "Well, tomorrow is all about to see if you got it or not."

"And if you don't go 'it'?" Naruto quirky asked; it sounded a little sardonic to Kakashi.

Kakashi smiled a little, evilly, no doubt. "Well, I guess you will have to tell Iruka and the new class how you're a _third-year _failure." Kakashi jabbed silently at Naruto, showing obviously that he knew of Naruto's predicament in the Academy earlier before he join Team 7. Kakashi easily noticed Sakura or Sasuke didn't catch the equally-sarcastic joking jab he poked at Naruto, which was probably good, Kakashi inwardly said. Would want to shoot down his ego to a lower level, he joked.

However, Naruto's face blushed with embarrassment and became a little more livid, raising his voice louder. He screamed, "What you say, you bast-?!! ACK!"

"NARUTO, SHUT UP ALREADY! LET HATAKE-SAN TALK!"

Kakashi didn't appreciate the scream, but he nodded to her with some feign gratitude. "Well, basically, if you don't pass this one, you will be sent back to the academy for a year in remedial class until you got the attitude and the skills to be a Genin on a team." Kakashi shuffled on his seat on the handrails of the rooftop. Kakashi folded his arms again. "Now, let's get down to business. This test is purely fighting, instead of anything with paper. You gotta show me the skills you developed physically, no doubt. However, as easy as that might sound, passing this test isn't an easy feat."

"Why do you say that?" Naruto asked again, more interested than ever.

"Because, Naruto, the test requires something that people can't get."

"Which is?"

Kakashi grinned. "Now, that would be cheating if I told you. Let's just say the test is so hard that only 33.3% of our Genin-hopefuls pass the test."

"T-Thirty-three percent only?" Sakura nervously asked, apparently not liking the sound of only 33.3 percent of the Academy passes.

Kakashi nodded. "Yes, that little. It's annual, really." He shrugged. "You new generation of kids are very dedicated, I guess."

Sasuke and Naruto openly glared at Kakashi, while Sakura looked at him confusion. Kakashi ignored their looks, and continued with, "You never had to experience the greasy, dark feelings of war and conflict. Your generation has been living with peace for at least a good decade now. My generation and generations before you was in times of war; your generation had time to relax and take then the Ninja Way with ease." Kakashi spoke truthfully, getting Naruto and Sakura to nod a little, although Naruto still was stubborn. Sasuke didn't bother to nod, staring at Kakashi with contempt as Kakashi call him essentially not ambitious.

Sasuke didn't like that one bit.

"While, I guess in a way, isn't really too bad, it's making the generation of newer shinobi and kunochi softer, more weaker. I guess the current Hokage has to do with that."

"_Take that back_." Kakashi blinked, as Naruto stared more viciously at him, even more insulted that before. His first sentence was almost nothing but a growl. "The old man is a good damn Hokage."

"Naruto!" Sakura warned, with a lethal voice. "Shut the hell up and sit down, you baka!"

Naruto ignored her, promptly. Kakashi would have snickered at the girl being ignored, if the glare wasn't on him. It wasn't like the Genin-aspirer could really hurt him, but he did shifted uncomfortably under the glare of Naruto. Unmistakably, Kakashi saw traits of two things in Naruto: he had the eyes of his parents and his demon inside him.

"I don't insult Hokage-sama at all, Naruto-kun. I believe his rule did bring us a great era of peace since the Kyuubi Attack twelve years ago. He has steered us out of intercontinental conflict since our last war," Kakashi eased. "Although, I'm disappointed that because of the lack of conflict brought us a weaker generation of ninjas who have been failing like flies for the last year and a half. There is fewer Genin teams out there, much less they're fewer Geniuses these days."

"So what? You're a so-called Genius?" Kakashi almost groaned, hearing another sarcastic scoff heave out Naruto's mouth.

Kakashi smiled. "_Everybody_ of my generation was a Genius. Not as I stand here, do I see a Genius." Ignoring Sasuke's grunt and glare at him, Kakashi pointed out, "And with your grades, I wouldn't believe you were a Genius, Naruto-kun."

Naruto glared balefully at him. _'Another arrogance son of a bitch in my way. I'll show him....' _Naruto hit his chest with his clenched fist. "I don't _need_ to be a Genius to be who I want. I don't _need_ to be Gifted from birth. Fuck Geniuses. I can be a Hokage anyway I please."

Sasuke smikred. "You, Hokage, dopey? Yeah right. You have a better chance working at that ramen shop you like so much. I have a greater chance become Hokage."

Naruto glared at him. "Shut the hell up, Sasuke-teme. You're just better sitting there, being moody, brooding at whatever you hate." Sasuke narrowed his onyx eyes at the boy. Naruto didn't seem to notice this action and continued, hitting his chest. "Anything could achieve with hard work and skill. I'll become the Hokage one way or another."

While Sasuke scoffed at him, Kakashi noticed it was more in a sense of a respectful huff. Even Sakura Haruno looked briefly at Naruto with something other than contempt, even with something equal to reverence, even if it was more begrudging than Sasuke's huff. Kakashi smiled. _'Well, maybe the boy does has something worth keeping tabs on.'_

"Hmm, you know, I think I'm staring to like you guys." Kakashi remarked. "We'll see, Uzumaki, if you got what it takes to be a Genin. We'll see if you two also have what it takes. Naruto's right. It doesn't take a Genius to be a Hokage, but it definitely takes talent. We'll see your skills tomorrow, on the battlefield, shall we? Here's I want you guys to do: I want you to meet me at Training Grounds 7 at 5:00 AM _sharp_. Know where that is, right?" When they all nodded, he continued. "When I say 5:00 AM sharp, I say _5:00 AM sharp_. I will not except tardiness. Ninjas are punctual. If you aren't, don't _bother_ bringing yourself to the Training Grounds. Other than that, eat dinner, get some sleep, you know? Got it?" The children nodded. Kakashi jumped off his seat on the railing and move towards to the middle of the roof, near where they all sat. "Well, I guess I'll be going now."

He turned his back toward them, and seem to be leaving the roof, until he stopped. "Oh, and one more thing, don't even bother eating breakfast when you wake up."

Sakura blinked and asked, "Why sensei?"

Kakashi shrugged realistically. "Well, I don't think you want to." He turned his head to her, grinning as his eye closed in humor, perhaps more in the light of sadism. "_Surely _if do, you'll throw up." After hearing the cheerful, polite voice masking his cruelty, the three students groaned. He seemed oblivious to their groans, although he grinned perhaps more at it. "Okay now! See ya three tomorrow. Remember: Be there on time or don't come at all. _Ciao_!" After that, the three watched the strange man "poof" out of existence in a teleportation technique he used, leaving only scattered leaves and a plume of white smoke.

All three mulled over his words, not bothering to say goodbye, as they stiffly walked home to their houses respectively.

All three was destined for a hard day tomorrow.

….

Night came quick, he noticed. Naruto Uzumaki had not noticed it at all. He just did his usual schedule – training when he got home. Extensively at that. He just lost track of time, and before he knew it, it was dark. So, he headed home, not before getting his usual Ramen at Ichiraku, one of his favorite restaurants that he could afford. Even then

In the small, but modest, homey abode of Naruto Uzumaki's held said person in a bed. Naruto looked at the ceiling, not sound asleep for once. Instead, he had one of his hands on the back of his head, and the other stretched out in front of him, as he flexed it open and close for several moments, until he stopped, closing his blue eyes, pondering.

_'I been having strange dreams lately.... Queer dreams... What was that place I dreamed about?' _He frowned, reopening his eyes, albeit narrower than before. _'And that skill I acquired.... I saved Iruka-sensei with it.... The old man has told me something was special about that skill I got before I beat that bastard, Mizuki... Some crap about the fate of the world was in my hands now.... Or did he say _worlds_?'_

Naruto shook his head. _'As if that damn monster inside me wasn't enough.' _He scowled. It wasn't very long that Mizuki told him that he had the Kyuubi in him.... It shouldn't have effected him like that, especially when he didn't know for the last 12, _13 _years he was housing a demon he thought was dead. It explained everything: why he was hated and disliked by villagers and ninjas alike, why nobody wanted to adopt him, why nobody care for him, except for a few people.... Now, Naruto didn't know what to feel about his people, especially now. They spat, kicked, and hurt him because he had the Kyuubi in him, because they thought he was the Kyuubi incarcerate.

It gave him flashing pains of anger. Rage. Sorrow. Apathy. This kinda of ambivalence confused him, made him more irate.

He hated it.

It hurt so much to know that nobody wanted him because of something sealed inside of him. Not like he had any genocidal thoughts, ever, on the village he loved. No, and he still didn't. All this anger was directed to a lot of sources; half the villagers and half to the people who knew him personally, knew the Kyuubi and never told him. Although, Sarutobi reassured him that the law prevented anybody to say anything, he didn't think he quite liked the law. As if it was kept a secret good, he sarcastic thought. He had been too stupid to put the pieces together.

October 10, his birthday, same day of the Kyuubi's attack and siege of the city. His whisker marks that he first thought were just scars. How he seemed to "survive" every attack, beat down and beating in his life. He was endowed with a great gift, Sarutobi said to him once. And now, he had another gift.

The gift to save or destroy the world.

Naruto didn't want this gift.

_'Ah screw it.' _He reassured. _'Right now, I should worry about trying to sleep.'_

His hands almost shot out to the ink brush on the side of his nightstand, until he willed them back for his own personal good. No time for experimenting...

Well, when his legs twitched, he shrugged a little to himself and grabbed the ink brush and damped it into the ink. "Okay, maybe a little experimenting won't hurt."

….

Getting up this early didn't get to Naruto as much as he thought. Until he remembered he got up this early to train in his ninjutsu and a form of his own taijustu, he guessed sheepishly, he felt great that he wasn't brain dead with grogginess. In silence he walked to the grounds, until he balked for a second. _'Should, should I use it? Sarutobi said don't use unless it's necessary.' _Naruto pondered, hold his hand on his chin thoughtfully, but then shrugged, walking up more. _'Despite that guy Kakashi being a bastard, he's probably a _strong _bastard. Never judge a book by its cover.' _He then smirked. _'Kakashi-sensei better know how to not judge me by stature.'_

Flexing his right hand again, he grinned and ran to Training Grounds 7, head held up high. Taking a big bite of his apple, he forgot to remember Kakashi's words to eat.

Coincidentally, the other two on his team were walking in the clearing exactly at the time he did. He nodded silently to the two, which earned him a tired nod and a near-nonexistent grunt from his teammates. Sakura, who apparently wasn't accustomed to waking up at this time and hour, did the tired nodding, while Sasuke, who was the complete opposite, did a grunt, that told Naruto that Sasuke wasn't too sure about acknowledge he even lived, let alone, in front of him. Naruto himself did a grunt, shaking his head at the two. Despite Sakura being his crush, he felt a nagging feeling to ask her "Why aren't completely up too?". He knew that will earn him a few knocks in his head; Naruto sighed at that thought. _'Maybe it's because she needed her beauty sleep?'_

Of course, he did hear the terminology "Women need their beauty sleep" from others, especially girls, which Naruto never got. Sakura and a few other girls he knew on a name basis didn't need "beauty" sleep. They – Sakura was the prettiest girl he knew, so he _definitely_ knew the phrase didn't apply to her – needed their sleep to feel and look beautiful. Of course, they were already cute/beautiful in Naruto's eyes. _'Ah, girls, I'll never understand them.'_

Naruto shrugged, a little annoyed he got off his topic-manta-repetition of encourage words to himself.

The phrase was simply: _I won't run away._

….

Naruto sat patiently, as did Sasuke on a boulder large enough to fit the three. However, Sakura was off the boulder, screaming crankily, "WHERE THE FUCK IS THAT BASTARD?!!"

The collected two winced a little – Naruto practically shrunk in his orange, decent-smelling (a least today, he noted) jacket, not liking how loud the girl could scream. Made Naruto feel a hundred-times happier that he wasn't on the reason for her barrier-shattering scream, or _exactly_ _who _she was screaming at – Sakura unconsciously screamed a nest of birds, substituting for her lax teacher who hadn't made it yet. Said birds chirped back obviously irate, boisterously back at her, as if they were screaming to her to "SHUT THE HELL UP, YOU FRIGGIN' PSYCHO HUMAN! ISN'T ENOUGH THAT YOU DEVILS TAKE OVER OUR FOREST FOR YOUR HORRIBLE USES?!!!" Of course, Naruto didn't speak _Bird _but they seemed mad.

Very mad.

And if he wasn't another man, probably of a different species, the volume of the scream would have irritate him.

But fortunately – or unfortunately, another part of him said, one side that was just a plain _heretic_ in his devotion, _religion_ to the beautiful pink-haired girl in front of him who was still screaming at angry birds – he wasn't.

The first few minutes, everybody was just dwelling on what they were going to do on the test, instead of noticing their sensei wasn't here just yet. Those minutes grouped into a hour...

"…."

Then came the second, with agitation in all three of them...

_A twitch began on Sakura's skull..._

Then came the third, with even more tension in the air – Naruto could have swore that Sakura Haruno had an ominous aura omitting over their heads like a cloud...

_A growl was evident from the girl, almost as it was a snarl..._

Then came the fourth, which is now, which is when Sakura decided to scream. _'Damn, those are some powerful lungs'_, Naruto commented in his head. A part of him, a darker, more perverse side of him thought more into his comment, pulling out the subliminal thought of, _'And she's got a big mouth...'_

Naruto was automatically driven into more sexual thoughts of his lovely classmate. He could easy remember the hot pink hair, those emerald green eyes, that _petite_, fair-skinned, cute face and her lithe body. Then, he started to getting into more details.... the _specific _details.

Sasuke's eyebrow risen as he saw Naruto's face light up red. A grin came on his face, nothing short of mischief. Yes, Sasuke Uchiha has a small, but noticable"What's wrong, dopey? Thinking something _perverted_?" Naruto growled, as Sasuke purposely stretched out the word "perverted". While Naruto was tempted to say, "_Yes"_ to the onyx hair colored boy, with gusto and bravado in his voice, as if he was proud of thinking of his beloved Sakura in that sense, Naruto was a _tad _smarter than that.

Sakura, no matter for any reason, whether it was directed to her or not, hated perverts, perversion and anything that was perverted. He bet she seethed in anger when he first flashed the Sexy Technique, the Oiroke no Jutsu in the academy he went to, as did many other females in the academy, as they gave him an "outright" beating after he yucked it up, with laughter as he got screamed at Iruka-sensei and his lovely woman peers.

Ah, good times, he joked.

However, he noticed in the time of his reminiscing, he didn't answer Sasuke's question. The Uchiha boy noticed too, before him at that. He smirked at the inwardly-panicking blond boy.

Instead of the mantra, "I won't run away", Naruto repeated in his skull, "I'm _so_ fucking dead."

Fortunately – unfortunately, as Sasuke frowned disappointedly – Sakura was more into screaming at the birds, as she complained more on how much of a "tardy, lazy-eyed, _motherfucker_, _waste of good space_" Kakashi Hatake was as he made it clear he wasn't going to show...

"Good morning, my cute little students!"

Until the idiot walked into the clearing....

….

Sakura's intelligence attracted Naruto the most. The way she could recite rules – rules he might break from time to time but still, it sounded _nice_ when she said them – and the way she seemed to be a top kunoichi of his class. Her personality and her body – Naruto blushed every time he said it – was added points for his infatuation for Sakura. But when Sakura screamed, no matter how much beauty she had, was just horrible, lethal, scary.

When Kakashi shuffled onto the Grounds like he was taking an easy stroll in the park, Naruto and Sasuke was obviously annoyed....

But Sakura was livid.

"WHERE THE FUCK WERE YOU?!! YOU SAID 5:00 ON THE DOT!!! I GOT OUT MY BED FOR THIS?!!!"

Kakashi blinked, almost like he truly didn't know what Sakura was talking about, until Naruto saw amusement in his face, as the gray-haired man smiled nervously. "Um, I said that?"

"YES, YOU FRIGGIN' HYPOCRITE!! I THOUGHT YOU SAID IF WE WERE LATE, WE SHOULDN'T EVEN BOTHER COMING HERE!!" Sakura yelled to the face of Kakashi Hatake. If looks could kill, Kakashi would be already in ashes. Fortunately for the other two who just want to pass, Kakashi didn't falter.

All he did was back up from the angered girl, smiling, eye crinkling with amusement. "Well, well, no time to play around. Let's get down to the rules, so I can go home and read in peace. All of you are going to fail anyway as it is; let's get this over with." He said, still very amused and sarcastic. All three glared at him, hatred stinging in their eyes. Kakashi waved the three off nonchalantly, despite them leaking out unintentional killer intent. He noted that they _at leas_t had the ability to do _that_ correctly. "Man, you younger generation sure can't take a joke well."

"And you sure can't get here faster, grandpa." Naruto scoffed. "What took you this long to get to the Training Grounds – got lost or something?"

"Actually, I did." Naruto's eyebrow, as did the others, rose at the answer. "I got lost on the path of Life."

"..." Silence followed. Naruto shook his head in disgust, and muttered, "_What a flamin' weirdo_..."

"Now, now, Uzumaki." Kakashi cheerfully said, despite the insult. "A dead last such as yourself shouldn't talk so bad about his commanding officer."

Naruto's eyes lit up with murder. They screamed, "Kill this motherfucker! How dare he insult _us_?!"

It wasn't surprising when Naruto shot out to Kakashi, kunai at hand, snarling, "I'll _fucking_ kill you, ya _cocky, bow-legged, lazy sumofabitch_!"

Despite Naruto baring his fangs at Kakashi – Kakashi still however keep Naruto restrained with one hand at the energetic Genin-aspire – Kakashi smirked down at him. "That's the idea. Didn't let me say 'Go' yet, but at least you have the idea."

"And the idea is to kill you, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura said with dread. Despite Kakashi was an old, lazy bastard with one lazy-eye and a freakin' weirdo, she didn't want to take the man's life, let alone another's life! Still, wasn't this the life of a ninja though?

Kakashi shook his head. "Well, the idea is really to do what you have to do to get _these_!" Kakashi flickered out two silvery small bells, danging in his hands carelessly. Kakashi closed his fist and brought it back to his face. "The idea is to get these bells at all cost – no exceptions! If you want these, you gotta come at me with the intent to kill. I'm not going to give you these by chance. You gotta fight for them."

"Hmph, what the hell are friggin' bells going to test us on?" Naruto harrumphed at his position. He already got out Kakashi's strong but arrogant grip and returned to his team's side. "It seems like you're just wasting our time."

"No, no, Uzumaki-kun. Perhaps being a dead last is preventing you from understanding correctly." Naruto glared at him heatedly, while Sakura and Sasuke snickered a little at his side. Kakashi smiled though, waving off him a little. "Look, don't get mad, kid. I'm joking."

"All you been so far is a joke, you ninja bastard. _Just like all those villagers..._" Naruto muttered the last part, but again, the other heard him. While the other twelve-year-old ninjas looked confused at his statement, then ultimately shrugged it off. Naruto was always weird. No difference.

However, Kakashi's eyes narrowed a little at the blond haired boy's expression, until he sighed finally, a little guilty. _'Okay, maybe I should stop joking with the kid. He's too serious.' _"Well, the point of these bells are suppose to test your current skills. Speed, agility, stealth, strength, common sense, using your surroundings, that sort of thing." When all three of the young ninjas' face nodded in understanding, he continued, "You are suppose to get these bells from me, doing anything in your power to do so."

Kakashi pointed to a log in front of him, "Here, see this alarm clock?" It was rhetorical, but he waited for them to nod anyway. He nodded himself. "This clock will go off at 12:00 PM directly. Not a second after or a second before it. That's when the test ends indefinitely. When the test is finished, I will evaluate your skills and see if you are fit enough to be label Genin." He juggled the bells, throwing them up and down in and out of his gloved fist. "Now, you got three hours to do that." They groaned.

_'No wonder he came late. He want to see us fail.' _All three thought, tiredly.__

"Oh, and whoever can't attempt to get the bells, they will not get lunch to eat." When he heard stomachs grumble, and heard some groans, he smiled sadistically.

"Um, right." All of them said. _'So, that's why he didn't want us to eat breakfast....'_

Naruto smirked to himself. _'I guess breaking a few rules does have it perks.'_

Kakashi smiled, "So, any other questions?"

"Um, Kakashi-sensei, why are they're only two bells?" Sakura asked. "We're a team of three, so shouldn't there be three bells?"

Kakashi shrugged his shoulders, noticing Sasuke and Naruto nodded with Sakura's question. "Dunno. Maybe he felt three was just too much for a Genin team? Maybe he felt he wanted to weed out the weaklings? One thing is certain, at least one of you will be tied to that log, and probably the same one who goes back to the academy."

_'No, I can't go back in the academy. I will not let this hurdle stop me from reaching my goal._' Sasuke's fist clenched. _'Those losers are going to be the ones going back to the academy.'_

'Aw, no!! I can't go back there.' She shook her pink head vehemently. _'What would Sasuke-kun think if I did?' _She dreaded him calling her "annoying" again, like the last time they were together at lunch yesterday, before they met up with their sensei. She was really hurt by it. _'I'll be the laughing stock of the academy, of the "Sasuke-sama Fan-club"!! No!!' _Sakura thought. _'Well, Kakashi-sensei did say one of us would go back to the academy, so it shouldn't be Sasuke-kun or me.... Hmm, Naruto-baka then! CHA! The idiot's a pest anyway, who needs him?' _Although she said that, she stared down a little. _'Still, Naruto did pass the exam, some way. He doesn't deserve to go to the academy and be a three-year failure...'_

"No way!"

Sasuke and Sakura looked at their idiot-teammate screaming. Said boy glared at the stoic gray man before them. Naruto's eyes twitched in anger.

He gritted his teeth together, pumping a fist up, looking like he was read to fight. "Why would the old man go put us on teams of three if it was just to cut us down like this? That's _stupid_!"

Kakashi looked at him for a second, with some wide eyes, but then, that face fell. He optioned to shrug carelessly at Naruto. "Like I said: dunno. But you don't have to worry about that... Because like I said, _'_A_t least one of you will be sent back'_. Doesn't mean _all of you_ can't be sent back." Wide eyes were all Kakashi seen, as a sadist gleam rolled in his eyes, as he smiled. "Now, anymore questions before we start? You do know you wasted about ten minutes with your questions, right?" When the man calmly said this, all of them shook their heads feverishly. Kakashi smiled again. "Well, all I can say is good luck to all of you now."

Kakashi gave them a thumbs-up, telling them, "Go for broke! _Go_!"

All of the ninjas were off in a blur. Man, you should have seen the kids' lightning speed!

….

...well, at least _two_ of the kids' speed.

Kakashi looked at the eccentric, blond boy, Naruto Uzumaki, who still had his feet planted on the ground. He shook his head. "You know, you aren't like the others..."

"Damn right! I'm Naruto Uzumaki!"

"And... you aren't very bright." Kakashi prodded.

Naruto's anger boiled again. He shouted at the man, "Whatchu say, fucker?!" He was definitely going to kick his ass for that, he promised! How dare he continuously insult him! That stupid, lazy prick bastard.

However, Naruto balked, in a look of confusion and alert as Kakashi dug into his inner-pocket for an item. What was it, a bladed weapon, a bomb, an explosion tag?

Naruto's questions were floored as Kakashi pulled out something he didn't expect... and it sure made him angry.

"I-Icha Icha?" Naruto thought out loud, both his eyebrows quivering and twitching at the site of the orange book. A crude drawing was on the top

"Hmm? Yeah, Icha Icha, kid. The newer edition at that. Icha Icha Paradise!" Kakashi's eye rolled up in content. Naruto could imagine Kakashi was drooling under the mask.

Naruto snarled, "You're reading smutty books while fighting me?!!" How did he have the gall, the _nuts_, to even play around with Naruto Uzumaki?! To whom he may damn for spawning it, the creature known as Kakashi?! To whom he may beat down for birthing the weirdo know as Hatake?! To whom he may curse for making the man know as Kakashi Hatake?!!

In a fit of rage, Naruto charged at Kakashi, who seemingly was more synchronized with the book than his surroundings. However, when Kakashi caught Naruto's fist before he caught him in his face and all, Kakashi sighed almost exhaustively. "Lesson 1: Taijutsu."

"Wha-" Naruto was interrupted as Kakashi effortlessly coiled his arm to Naruto's shoulder. He grabbed the momentarily-shocked boy and throw him over his head, judo-styled. Kakashi wasn't too surprised when Naruto landed on his feet gracefully, actually glad he did. _'At least the boy knows to land on his own two feet.'_ Naruto brought forth two kunai blades in each of his hands and stared angrily at the man before charging at him again.

Kakashi lazily stared at him as Naruto ran towards him. Kakashi stayed in place, but unfortunately, that was a bad mistake.

In a surprising speed, Naruto blurred from existence. Kakashi's eye widened Kakashi turned to his left, sensing Naruto right there, and caught his foot. In a little effort to hold up Naruto's foot in his armpit, Kakashi freely read his orange book. "Surprising, kid. I might have underestimated you for a sec. However, to be truthful, your taijutsu is sloppy and lazy. It's as if some kid tried teaching you taijutsu."

Naruto's face lit up in a blush – the new red-colored visage was a blend of anger and embarrassment. "Why you-!"

"Calm down, kid. Maybe if you did a little, I could read my book in peace and just fail you guys." He gotten a growl and flailing out of Naruto once more. "Kid, stop squirming and I could just read and fail you. It will be easier on both of us." Kakashi blinked as he felt a "popping" noise where Naruto was, until Kakashi was billowed by smoke. Kakashi grunted. "A clone. Kid knows Bunshin no Jutsu." Actually, Kakashi remembered that the "Naruto" he had was solid, unlike a vivid but intangible image of him that the regular clone technique created. Kakashi muttered, a little more disappointed that he couldn't read more now.

He was dealing with _**Kage **_**Bunshin no Jutsu** now.

_'Is this why the Hokage wanted me to keep an eye out for the kid?' _Kakashi wasn't dumb: looks could be deceiving. He was the master of looking "under the underneath" and he was no fool to the boy's skills. They had been sloppy, weird, uncoordinated, looked-like-it-was-hastily-planned (or not planned at all very well to begin with, he thought more accordingly) and unorthodox. However, the boy displayed a jutsu that most ninjas didn't even know: The Shadow Clone Technique. Even if some ninja knew the technique – which were still by few – the technique took a toll on the body. It required massive amounts to do the technique, let alone do a least one or two clones. However, he flaunted the B-Rank technique proudly and cleverly, despite Kakashi knowing where Naruto is.

Maybe the kid would live up to the hype. Maybe the kid would become the Hokage if he wanted to. Maybe the kid could be what only his father was?

The greatest ninja of Konoha?

_'Greatest ninja is going to have to wait awhile, I guess.' _Kakashi sarcastically said, laughing a little in his head. He barely held his hand up to hold up the kid, who threw wild haymakers at his face. "Time to teach ya another lesson, Uzumaki. Lesson 2: Ninjutsu."

…

Frankly, the lesson hurt badly. Especially to his ass.

Naruto consciously rubbed the offended area gingerly, not trying to cause more anguish to it. It was embarrassing – totally. Nothing like an ass-poke to show how much you suck compared to a jounin like Kakashi Hatake. Like he said before, Naruto thought of Kakashi to be a total bastard. A bastard, but an incredibly strong bastard.

...Still a bastard nonetheless.

Naruto may have be headstrong, but he wasn't stupid now. Stubborn, yes.... Stupid, oh hell no, he prided. He was Naruto Uzumaki, next Hokage to be! But he needed help, a lot of it.

Naruto did have pride in his person but to seek help? No, Naruto wasn't above himself to ask others to help him whether with a technique or schoolwork, or even his grammar issues....

(In a far-away universe, a boy, soon to be 17, coughed "gracefully" at his desk as he types down another word. To himself, his sheepish grin is nothing compared to the embarrassment he felt just then.)

...And Kakashi Hatake was like, the written test. The written test that he couldn't pass because he didn't know what a word it was saying. None-whatsoever. So, why not get help, eh?

After all, that's what's teammates are here for... right?

…

Then again, he could be wrong, sweatdropping at Sakura's ranting. It hadn't been hard to find Sakura – her chakra wasn't as suppressed like Sasuke's, and Naruto knew her scent anywhere! Lilac perfume Sakura wore. She probably wore it for Sasuke, which diminished his hopes of her not liking him too badly, but he always propped up! Besides, he wasn't complaining. If he had to smell Sakura's perfume and Sakura's orange-scented hair – which he always loved; Sakura plus orange equaled a happy Naruto-kun – because of Sasuke, then, who gave two and a half craps?! Naruto was still a happy-go-lucky kid, albeit a bit sarcastic, headstrong and a bit oblivious to the world around him. Maybe that keep him bouncing back to her.

Regardless, he was a bit downtrodden when his crush spat out all the reasons she wouldn't work with him... which most included "her and Sasuke-_kun_". Naruto almost vomited at the suffix for the bastard on his team. Okay, Naruto hatred for the onyx boy grew more to heights seemingly unfathomable. It took all his muscles to hold himself to not scream, "SASUKE IS A LITTLE EMO BOY WHO RATHER TELL EVERYBODY HIS 'DEPRESSING' STATE OF LIFE OVER AND OVER AGAIN UNTIL HE GOTTEN SICK HIMSELF AND SHITTED HIMSELF TO SLEEP!!!!' ...BUT, he decided he rather not.

Whether or not Sasuke was a brooding bastard or not, Sakura threw a mean right hook. And he meant _mean._

"But Sakura-chan," That wasn't groveling he wasn't doing. More like... begging on his knees like a dog. "I can't defeat do this on my own~!" Well, I guess you could call it groveling if you wanted to. Even dogs had respect for themselves.... But Naruto grovelled proudly. Again, Naruto wasn't too beyond groveling, especially to the girl who he liked. He had to admit though: that's what made Sakura Haruno sexy – her firm but intelligent stature. It was a healthy fusion... until she got mad. Her temper was also a contributing factor to him liking her. Naruto, not to sound TOO perverted, liked his girls brash. Scary, yes, but a little balls on the girls he liked didn't matter...!

It wasn't until he realized how wrong that statement before sounded _soooo _wrong in many levels, that he also noticed the girl of his attention was stomping away from him. "S-Sakura-chan, where ya going? Aren't ya going to team up with me?"

"HELL NO, NARUTO!!" Sakura yelled. For what reason she was mad, was beyond Naruto (or the writer... or the reader.... or God (Gods for whoever believe in more than one).... or anybody other than Kishimoto (no offense)).

Naruto blinked owlishly. "All I asked is you to team up with me."

"And I said no!"

"But why not?!" Naruto pitched back.

Sakura glared. "Naruto, this test isn't about us teaming up! This is all about individual strength, not hoping you can rely on your peers!"

"But we're a-"

"Besides, Sasuke-kun will get those bells for both of us, I know it!" Sakura squealed. "Why, I bet that bad boy is fight Ero-Hatake down there."

While the nickname was amusing to Naruto, he didn't find Sasuke being added into to the mix something to laugh about. Naruto scoffed. "I wouldn't want Sas_gay _to get some bells for me."

He was glad – then annoyed – that Sakura was so content in her fantasy world of her and Sasuke that she seemingly didn't take Naruto's "off-comment" of the Uchiha to actually hit him. Mean hook, remembered? However, when she did hear Naruto say the rest ("Sasuke" and "Sasugay", could you tell the difference of names beside the spelling if you heard it? I bet not), she turned around, deadpanning, "I didn't mean you and me."

Naruto ignored, or more like tried to, Sakura's statement and instead opted to go back on the grassy floor and grovel again. "Come on, Sakura-chan! Let's team up! Hell, we could even team up with Sasuke if you wanna-"

"I said no, Naruto! Sasuke-kun doesn't need a hindrance like you anyway!!" Sakura dismissed Naruto's hurt look and pondered for a second, a finger on her chin. "I know, I'll go help Sasuke-kun out! Sasuke-kun, I'm coming!!"

"But-" But unfortunately for Naruto, Sakura was well down the grassy path to go search for her crush. Irony would have been Naruto's new word for today, if he didn't stare down at the grass under him. He stood up, grunting angrily.

The words stung in his head, telling him that he was a hindrance in her, Sasuke and possibly that Hatake-guy's eyes. Maybe he was...

No! He shot up, fist pumped, a smile brandishing his face. Actually, it was more a curve on his lips filled with determination. "Naruto Uzumaki" and the word "hindrance" didn't quite mix! He wasn't no hindrance to this team. He was damn stronger than that Sasuke-bastard. And he would show it. To Sakura, to Kakashi, to Sasuke, to everybody he knew.

No more playing around anymore! It was time he showed the world his stuff!!

Naruto muttered the words, "_Sorry, old man, but I'm going to show my trump card to these guys._" He grinned and jumped into the trees.

And into the battlefield he go.

…

Sasuke Uchiha was a prodigy. He was a Genius child on this newer generation, people believed. With many others and himself believing so, he grew accustomed to the word, "Genius" being applied to his name. He did excel in taijutsu and ninjutsu over his academic peers, especially with his specialty being Katon or Fire Techniques. However, despite many claims that he was a Genius, he was still a kid with limitations. He wasn't perfect in his ninjutsu, as some of his clan techniques he could not perform because his current level of Chakra and Chakra control was not suited for so. His taijutsu was almost flawless but still, his taijutsu had a few holes in it, and could be over powered by somebody who was stronger than him. He knew not a thing about Genjutsu at all – no techniques, only the way to break them.

Kakashi Hatake was a prodigy who was an Jounin by name. That meant, by rank, that he knew a least more than Sasuke in Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, and Genjutsu. And sadly, Sasuke wasn't disappointed that he did. Well, he was in a way – Sasuke was still prideful of his heritage and power. Sasuke didn't like saying that Kakashi was stronger, faster, and more experienced than him. But it was true.

Sasuke felt winded, breathing a little at the speed Kakashi was dodging his punches and kicks. Despite this, Sasuke still came at Kakashi with every punch and kick he learned from the Uchiha-style taijutsu background he had. Kakashi lazily swiped at Sasuke, which was slow enough to hit, as Sasuke expected Kakashi to be faster. It wasn't until he realized that perhaps Kakashi was playing around, Sasuke gritted his teeth down hard. This level of arrogance exceed his own and Sasuke honestly didn't like it.

He was the only person that deserved to be arrogant, dammit!

Sasuke tugged at Kakashi's silvery bells again, but didn't even have the time to even feel the texture of the bells as Kakashi pulled away quickly. Sasuke punched at Kakashi, which he caught. Holding Sasuke's fist already, Kakashi caught a kick to his head with another open hand. His sigh signified he rather be somewhere else. 'Damn kids messing up my time of reading. The last team I had last year were so afraid of fighting hand-to-hand with me, that they gave me ample time to read.' Despite the sigh signifying he rather read his smut than fight, he smirked in amusement. The kids were strong, brave even, but stupid, he figured. Still they haven't figured that these test wasn't for them to fight him like this, huh?

He glanced at the clock over to his west, despite Sasuke struggling in his grasp.

It was well over two hours this test has been going on. _'Only one hour until this test is over....They got until then to figure it out.'_

_'Hopefully....' _he last thought, as he dropped Sasuke on purpose, to see his reaction. Said boy caught himself and cartwheeled to Kakashi's left. Sasuke threw a flurry of kunai knives and shuriken stars to Kakashi's head. The man dodged a little, front a tilt of his head to a slight shifted in his legs. Kakashi lazily looked at Sasuke's hand flip, flashing hand seals at a surprising rate for an fresh-out-of-the-academy ninja. Kakashi saw the sequence of the hand seals Snake, Ram, Monkey, Boar, Horse, and finally, Tiger, signifying the boy was trying to do a Katon technique.

And succeed he did. After the necessary seals were done, the boy inhaled a great amount of oxygen in his mouth and gathered even more amount of chakra in his chest, Kakashi noted. Like most fire techniques, it was all in the breath. When Kakashi saw the boy put up his index finger and thumb in a "ring", he wasn't surprised the fireball was created. As soon as the fire touched the air, the blaze became greater. Kakashi dodged the power ball quick, despite the surprising speed it put up. Maybe his students weren't so boring as he would think.

Yeah.

Well, he was still sadistic. It didn't take long until he decided to deviously put Sasuke underground. (Oh, don't worry Sasuke fans. Everything but Sasuke's head was underground) Sasuke looked surprised, didn't hold back from yelping in surprise either. When Kakashi bended down to Sasuke's... "grounded" form, (Author is pelted with rocks for the horrible pun) his face lit up in humor. "Well, how's it going down there, Sasuke-kun?" (Almost killed for another pun.)

Sasuke glared balefully at the man above him. "What... did... you... do?" He bared his voice through his teeth. The grinding of his teeth was almost palpable.

Kakashi shrugged. "Oh, casual Jounin technique, my boy. **Doton: Shinjū Zanshu no Jutsu** or the Earth Release: Double Suicide Decapitation Technique. It's mostly an _assassination_ technique." Kakashi was sadistic, oh yes, to those who needed it and who didn't need more humbling that the Uchiha brat? Stressing the word "assassination" so blatantly, Kakashi noticed Sasuke's eyes just widened like saucers. In all the time he knew the Uchiha clan, and years of stealing their "coolness" from them, Sasuke was doing something so un-Uchiha-ish. Then again, Obito was just a black haired Naruto... with probably more skills but the same womanly problems. Ah good times....

To distill and dispel Sasuke's almost fearful look, he shrugged, fanning away the confusion. "I don't have the heart to finish it though. However, I think I'll leave you down there like that. More time for me to read anyway. Ciao!"

Kakashi popped out of existence, with a plume of smoke insulting his vision and his nose and his mouth. Sasuke coughed angrily and growled at his situation after the smoke was gone. Great, he was underground, mostly, from shoulders to toes. Could this day get worse?

"S-Sasuke-kun?! AHHH!!!" Sasuke groaned, hitting his face on the ground, as he saw one thing that could easy fuck up his day...

A fangirl fainted right near his face, near his breathing air.

As if his body being 90% underground didn't suck, a fan girl was passed out in front of him...

...He could probably get sick, or worse, they would grow on him!!

NOOOOOO!!! Must hate Itachi, must hate Itachi, no time for girls, no time for girls!! No times for girl parts and girl things and girl troubles! ASEXUAL, ASEXUAL!! Keep screaming "asexual".

No, it's not a term similar to the word "gay"! It just means "not interested"! WHAT, GAY FOR NARUTO?! _Naruto?!! _Hell to the third power no!! If he was gay, there was no way he like Naruto!! There was no way he was gay; no way he started that kiss with Naruto... BAH!! WHAT KISS?! THERE WAS NO KISS!!

ACK!! NOT GAY, NOT GAY, NOT GAY!!

….

Kakashi stood around, looking at the alarm clock. He narrowed his eyes, _'Thirty minutes... I guess I should just sit it out until the time, eh? 'Cause, it seems they aren't getting it.... Well, maybe that Uzumaki kid.' _It wasn't very long that Kakashi saw Naruto stagger into the woods, despite him suppressing his chakra – very good, he might add. He might have suppressed it at first, but it flared up soon after he met with another weaker chakra signature. Kakashi figured it was Sakura, since he noted her chakra coils and signature was smaller and weaker, easier to hide. He guessed seeing Naruto flared up her chakra. He saw as a sign of extreme emotions being played out, and since the girl was no-nonsense, almost damn right hatred for the boy. He _should _feel sorry for the boy... He should. Sadism, laziness and indifference was his namesake – can't let anybody think he's getting soft for a boy who has more women troubles than him.

"...Wait, I have women troubles?" He muttered. It sounded a little more confused than depressed.

Suddenly, a wave of blades came to Kakashi. If he wasn't already well guarded, he could have been hurt embarrassingly. Again, the "cool" man also didn't have "embarrassment" to his name. Kakashi turned away from the clock's direction and turned to a newer challenger: Naruto Uzumaki. Said boy smirked in his direction, crouched down as if he jumped from a tree. He declared, "Alright Hatake, let's go another round!"

"Kid", Kakashi sighed. "Do I have to go through the 'lessons' again? Preferably lesson 2?" Kakashi stifled a triumphant laugh as he saw Naruto unabashedly rubbed the formerly "assaulted area".

But Naruto steeled himself, now standing, fist pumped like he was about to uppercut somebody. "This time I won't hold back!"

Kakashi snickered. "Even if you did have some trump card, do you really think you can take me out. Kid, I see your skills and they look still very elementary." He almost laughed at Naruto's growls. "Don't you think ya should team up with those other peers. Maybe that will help." Okay, maybe Kakashi was getting a little soft. Maybe he gave a big hint that was so hard to not miss, that you would have to be a real idiot to miss it.

At Kakashi's attention, Naruto's ears popped up, as if he gotten the just of the test, or a little of it. It was hard to tell, since that attention was wiped away, replaced with anger. "Hmph, Sakura didn't wanna work with me, even after I said she could dragged the Uchiha-bastard along for the ride."

Snickering a little to himself, he said to himself, _'I don't think Sakura would be able to "dragged" Sasuke now. I think he's feeling a little "under the weather".' _(Again, the author is jumped by a lot of angry fan-fiction fans. He screams, "Gomen, sorry, désolé, désolé!!) He made an "ah" noise and nodded. "Well, I guess we go another round." He stared down at the alarm clock, "You guys only got twenty-five minutes anyway. Might as well making it interesting."

Naruto grunted in displeasure. "Okay, Kakashi! Watch this! See this?"

Kakashi blinked and looked blankly at him. He watched Naruto show his hand, palm open at him."Uh, a hand is nice and all Naruto, but how's that going to defeat me?"

Naruto scowled, "No, not the hand, idiot! Look at the palm!"

Kakashi strode lazily at the boy, looking a little more carefully at his palm, shrugging at what he's seeing. "So, you drew a drawing on your hand. Big ups, kid. I never see a crude, rudimentary drawing of a "T" in my life. Well, should the 'T' be upside down..." He paused and looked at the drawing. "And shaped a like a 'V'?"

Kakashi could easy spot frustration blooming in the face of the kid, however, he wavered a smile over his frustrations. "Actually, this is my trump card."

"The ability to draw badly?"

"No." Naruto glared at him and then grinned, chuckling. "It's what I drew that's my a trump card. It's a sword."

"A sword? Drawing is suppose to help you?" Kakashi innocently said. Actually, despite his innocence, he suspected something already when he first saw the technique. Unless Naruto was into body art, _bad _body art at that, he would doubt it wasn't for something.

Naruto grinned simply, ignoring the question. "I'll show you what I mean." Naruto suddenly, bit his thumb and wiped some blood over the tattoo. Taking a pregnant minute of pause, the drawing over Naruto's palm seem to smooth out, until it seemed almost like a skillful tattoo. Suddenly, the drawing seem to fizzle out of Naruto's palm, disappearing from all sight and instead, was left with something he suspected and was awed by.

In place of the drawing, left a sword in his hand. As in, a _real_ sword. It stood out in the same proportion and shape as his once-crude drawing. It was in the same of a broadsword, a blade usually handled by bandits, Kakashi noted. Amazement paned the face of Kakashi. This amount of skill and chakra wasn't gifted by many, especially when using these skills.

Storage seals.

Summoning.

The amount of chakra and skill poured in those aspects should have killed, let alone hurt this boy. And yet, he stood, un-winded by his technique. Surprised, yes, Kakashi was. Then again, he reasoned, it wasn't totally unheard of. Kakashi and countless others were capable of doing things like this his age and younger. It was mostly because they were pushed to this edge to become strong, and with knowing what life Naruto lead, what was in his past history, he knew the boy had "Genius" all over him, despite yesterday of him saying he hated the term of "Genius". Yep, Naruto was destined to become something unpredictable. However, with the stance Naruto had which was as clumsy as his taijutsu, he doubted Naruto had a great knowledge how to use that sword properly. Not that Kenjutsu was a specialty of the famed man. Like most well-rounded ninjas, in the fields of Ninja-hood Kakashi only knew the basics of things he didn't specialize in and since his former job as an ANBU taught how to handle a sword averagely, he bet he knew more that Naruto.

And he was right.

Naruto seemed to blindly swipe the blade in Kakashi's direction. With the size of the blade, Naruto seem to have some more trouble with lifting the blade over his head. Given the blade wasn't three times the size of Naruto's total body weight and mass, it was a nice size that seemed a little heavy for the boy. Regardless, he was surprised Naruto could do this.

...If only time was on his side.

The clock rang, and rang in a rage. Kakashi's stance dropped, as did Naruto's concentration on Kakashi. With a wordless "poof", the blade was extinguished from existence and Kakashi stared at Naruto, with indifference. "Times up."

Naruto stare down at the ground, trying to keep his vision from Kakashi. _'Dammit! We failed!!' _He sighed, defeated. That was it, he was a three-year failure. "So... I guess that's it, huh...?" Naruto asked rhetorically.

Naruto looked at Kakashi as he stared down at him and shrugged, "Maybe not, kid. For now, it's twelve, and it's time to take a break."

…

Sakura groaned. "Where am I?"

Then, everything came to her, and she gasped in horror, her eyes threatening to leak out in tears. "OH NO!! SASUKE-KUN'S.... SASUKE-KUN'S-"

"-Is here and eating his lunch, Sakura-chan." Kakashi's cool voice came to her, and she sighed in relief as she turned over to the ebony boy.

"Oh, Sasuke-kun, I thought you were dead." All she heard was a grunt from the boy who ate in front of her, but she misinterpreted it as him appreciating her caring about him.

Which popped up images in Sakura's mind. Borderline "M" images to "X" rated images.

And at that, Sakura decided to glomp Sasuke... Well, try to glomp him. She willed herself to do so, but no matter what, she could not move. "What's... going... on! Why can't I... glomp... my Sasuke-kun?!"

Kakashi snickered, "Cause, girly, you're kinda tied up at the moment." ("That's it, muthafucka! We won't take these puns anymore!! Say one more muthafucking pun and you're dead!!" A shotgun is held up at the Author's head. It's a nice "persuasion" to stop those puns now. -Gulp- "I promise!!")

"Huh?" She looked down at her and saw her hands, legs and all tied up in tan ropes to a log stump. "NO! Why?! Am... did I fail?"

"No. You didn't fail, Sakura." She sighed in relief. "Because... _you all failed_!!" Sakura flinched at Kakashi's booming voice, as did everyone on the team.

"What?! Why?" She asked. "I know we didn't get the bells from you, but you couldn't possible expect with your skill that we could win."

"Of course not!" Kakashi scoffed. "I didn't expect you all to get the bells individually, but maybe you could have gotten it as a team."

"Huh? But-"

"You didn't really expect you could luck out and get the bells from me by those means? It was suicidal going alone against a jounin, especially of my rank and skills, and _especially _individual. If I was a ninja in the field, I would have already killed you guys." He said harshly, seeing them flinch. "But if you worked together, you guys might have beaten me to at least get one bell. One mind is powerful but it's meaningless compared to three."

"But there was only two bells. How would all of us would pass if one of us wouldn't have a bell?"

Kakashi shook his head. "Maybe because teamwork was the key of the test. Maybe if the bells was devised to make you guys-"

"-Pit each other against each other." Sasuke nodded. "That's what this test was trying to do. It was trying to teach us how to work together." Sasuke finished.

"Very good, Sasuke." Kakashi nodded. "Yes, this test was suppose to teach you how to rely on others. If it was up to me to pass, I would pass Naruto and him only."

Sakura and Sasuke looked at Naruto with surprise. Said boy looked up with interest at Kakashi. "Why me?"

"Yeah, why the baka? If anything, he's the last person that should pass anything! Sasuke-kun should pass!" Sakura huffed, ignoring the look of Naruto's hurt face.

Kakashi groaned in disgust. "If he's an idiot, what are you guys?" He didn't bother to care for Sakura's flinching and Sasuke's grunts and huffs. "Out of all of you, he exercised at least some of the point to this test. Sakura, didn't Naruto ask you for help and you didn't give him it, instead opting to go help Sasuke?" When Sakura's head went down in some embarrassment and shame, he nodded sagely. "Sakura, if anything, you should fail. But I'm not going to do that."

"Y-You won't? So, we pass?" Sakura asked, eager with hope.

Kakashi narrowed his eye down at her. "Who said I'm doing that? Instead I think I'm not going to pass you right up front. That's too easy. Instead, I think I'm going to redo the test, giving you three more hours to get the bells from me, using teamwork. But what I wanna do is take a break for now."

"Oh great!" Sakura sighed. All that fighting – although she didn't do a damn thing – brought upon an appetite; she quickly noticed that Naruto and Sasuke munched on the food there. Whatever it was, was assaulting her senses in a good way. She wanted some of that alright! "Um, Kakashi-sensei?"

"Yes, Sakura-chan?" Kakashi said, reading a little of his smut book. Sakura ignored that, as her stomach grumbled, to her embarrassment.

"Um, where's my food?"

Kakashi grinned under his face. "There's no food for those who are tied to that post."

"W-WHAT?! B-But-!"

"You don't deserve it anyway." He shrugged.

"That doesn't matter! I... shouldn't you, like, give me a chance and excuse me! I'm a female!!"

"Hmm, let me think about it... Nope." Kakashi's sadism was undiscriminating. "If ya wanna be treated equally like the boys, I have to treat you with the same way." Actually, he just like being sadistic. Kakashi stood from his stump and put his book away, ignoring Sakura's protests and hollers. "Hmm, I think I left the alarm clock back in the middle of the forest. I'll be back in a few minutes, guys."

"Oh and one thing," Kakashi said, turning to the boys on the ground who were relishing in their food in their separate bentos, despite Sakura's hollering. "Don't let the girl eat a thing. 'Cause if you give her food, ya'll fail, ya dig?" Naruto and Sasuke nodded wordlessly at Kakashi's order.

Sakura huffed, looking at Kakashi's fleeting form. "Whatever... I don't need any food." But her grumbling stomach said otherwise.

She tried to hide her stomach grumbling, trying to pass it off as something else, but Naruto didn't hesitate to put his bento in Sakura's face. Sakura looked at Naruto questioningly. "N-Naruto, wha-?"

"Take it, Sakura-chan. I'm not hungry anymore. I ate something this morning anyway." Naruto smiled a little to her, despite the uncertainty on her face.

"But what if-"

"Oh don't worry about him. He probably had to walk pretty far for that alarm clock." He shrugged. "Besides, if he's giving us another chance, we're going to need you at full strength, right, Uchiha?"

The boy besides him, also nodding, agreed with Naruto. "Uzumaki's right, um..." Sakura waited. "What's your name again?"

"S-Sakura Haruno." Sakura's attitude deflated at Sasuke's obliviousness to her name, despite them being in the same class together for a year now.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed. "Um, right. Well, anyway, Haruno, we're going to need you at full strength at fighting Kakashi again, so eat, because I won't have you as a hindrance."

Sakura smiled. "Oh, thank you, Sasuke-kun!"

"Um, hey, what about me? I offered first..." Naruto muttered loudly.

Sakura blinked. "Oh, and thanks... Naruto."

Naruto kicked the dirt. _'Well, at least I got a "Thank You".... despite me having to ask.'_

As Sakura chewed on Sasuke's and Naruto's bento, screaming to them both "Thanks!" in bites – a more sensible part of her screaming most thanks to Naruto, while her irrational part, the part that rule most of her mind yelled more at Sasuke. It wasn't until the boom voice of Kakashi came into play that she almost wet herself.

"_What... the... hell are you feeding her for?!_"

"Um guys, I think I wet myself." With Sasuke and Sakura numbly nodding the same thing, all three cowered in fear.

Thunder and darkness came over their heads, with Kakashi's voice sounding the most terrifying of the theatrics. Kakashi cackled darkly. "_You _do _know what's coming next, do you?!_"

"Um, I got an idea..." Sakura squeaked out.

"_YES! I'M GOING TO SAY THESE THREE WORDS TO YOU KIDS! YOU GUYS...."_

"...Pass!" Kakashi said, thunder and darkness now disappearing.

".... WTF?!" All of them said as one.

"Kakashi, what happened about all that bullshit about us failing if we gave-"

"It was a lie, Naruto."

"Eh?" Was Naruto's smartest comment. Not like Sakura and Sasuke could do better – their jaws were still on the floor.

Kakashi sighed. "Kid, you did something that signified you guys teamwork. While you guys were disobeying my orders, you thought of your teammate before yourself. And that's what's all about, guys. You guys gotta trust each other, and rely on each other 'cause if you can't rely on them, then you can't rely on anybody." They nodded, to which Kakashi smiled. "Of course, you guys gotta work on your skills too before becoming a good team. All of you have flaws that we gotta work on but that's all superficial. Tomorrow, we'll worry about that. Until then, enjoy your days, guys. Meet here at 9:00 AM everyday. Got it?" They nodded. Kakashi put his thumb up. "Congrats to Team Seven!"

Naruto and Sakura cheered outright, while Sasuke smirked to himself. It was obvious Sasuke was happy with passing too.

"See ya, guys!" Kakashi teleported away from Training Grounds Seven, leaving the three here to go home by themselves.

"Sasuke-kun! Do you..." Sakura blushed, asking shyly. "Wanna go on the date with me?"

"Hmph. No." He nodded at Naruto and muttered to them, "Later."

Sakura was immediately depressed at him. It didn't help when Naruto asked her on a date after that.

Sakura scowled, "No, Naruto, now leave!"

When Naruto sighed and nodded, treking home now, she grunted and harrumphed. Time for her to go home...

But then she looked down at her predicament and groaned, "No! WAIT, NARUTO!! COME BACK HERE AND CUT ME DOWN FROM HERE, YOU BAAAAAKKKKKKKKKAAAA!!!"

_**End.... For Now!**_

Omake!!

He declared, "Alright Hatake, let's go another round!"

"Kid", Kakashi sighed. "Do I have to go through the 'lessons' again? Preferably lesson 2?" Kakashi stifled a triumphant laugh as he saw Naruto unabashedly rubbed the formerly "assaulted area".

But Naruto steeled himself, now standing, fist pumped like he was about to uppercut somebody. "This time I won't hold back!"

Kakashi snickered. "Even if you did have some trump card, do you really think you can take me out. Kid, I see your skills and they look still very elementary." He almost laughed at Naruto's growls. "Don't you think ya should team up with those other peers. Maybe that will help." Okay, maybe Kakashi was getting a little soft. Maybe he gave a big hint that was so hard to not miss, that you would have to be a real idiot to miss it.

At Kakashi's attention, Naruto's ears popped up, as if he gotten the just of the test, or a little of it. It was hard to tell, since that attention was wiped away, replaced with anger. "Hmph, Sakura didn't wanna work with me, even after I said she could dragged the Uchiha-bastard along for the ride."

Snickering a little to himself, he said to himself, _'I don't think Sakura would be able to "dragged" Sasuke now. I think he's feeling a little "under the weather".' _ He made an "ah" noise and nodded. "Well, I guess we go another round." He stared down at the alarm clock, "You guys only got twenty-five minutes anyway. Might as well making it interesting."

Naruto grunted in displeasure. "Okay, Kakashi! Watch this! See this?"

Kakashi blinked and looked blankly at him. He watched Naruto show his hand, palm open at him."Uh, a hand is nice and all Naruto, but how's that going to defeat me?"

Naruto scowled, "No, not the hand, idiot! Look at the palm!"

Kakashi strode lazily at the boy, looking a little more carefully at his palm, shrugging at what he's seeing. "So, you drew a drawing on your hand. Big ups, kid. I never see a crude, rudimentary drawing of a "T" in my life. Well, should the 'T' be upside down..." He paused and looked at the drawing. "And shaped a like a 'V'?"

Kakashi could easy spot frustration blooming in the face of the kid, however, he wavered a smile over his frustrations. "Actually, this is my trump card."

"The ability to draw badly?"

"No." Naruto glared at him and then grinned, chuckling. "It's what I drew that's my a trump card. It's a sword."

"A sword? Drawing is suppose to help you?" Kakashi innocently said. Actually, despite his innocence, he suspected something already when he first saw the technique. Unless Naruto was into body art, _bad _body art at that,__he would doubt it wasn't for something.

Naruto grinned simply, ignoring the question. "I'll show you what I mean." Naruto suddenly, bit his thumb and wiped some blood over the tattoo. Taking a pregnant minute of pause, the drawing over Naruto's palm seem to smooth out, until it seemed almost like a skillful tattoo. Suddenly, the drawing seem to fizzle out of Naruto's palm, disappearing from all sight and instead, was left with something he suspected and was awed by._**  
**_  
And Kakashi for the second time in his life was unhelpfully confused. A light glimmered in Naruto's right hand, as if Naruto was expecting something to come out of it. And that something was. The light expanded, like a weapon was coming out, and it did. Finally, the light disappeared, leaving a weapon Kakashi would only see in his dreams. Out the light came a blade, no ordinary blade.... actually, it wasn't a blade. The top, where a blade should have been, the teeth he guessed, was rigged in the shape of a crown. The top was silver in color. The "blade" part also was silvery like a sword, having a handle at the end of the sword-like weapon. The hilt of the sword was golden colored and square in shape. Basically, it looked like a big old skeleton key with a hilt and, dare he see it, a key chain at the bottom.

And this confused Kakashi.

"What the hell!" Kakashi finally broke his character.... And promptly yelled, "WHAT THE HELL KINDA IS THAT?!"

"Ya likes?" Naruto grinned. "Okay, maybe it doesn't have a ridged edge or a straight up pointy blade part but this is my trump card: the Keyblade!!"

Kakashi's jaw dropped, with Naruto took it an invitation to cast some of his magic.

"THUNDER!!"

Naruto gleefully watched as the lightning fried Kakashi's gray-ass. Naruto let out a diabolical laugh. "Mwhahahahaha!! THAT WHAT YOU GET FOR CALLING ME A DEADLAST, YOU FUCKING SCARECROW!!"

_'Ugh. Maybe I should have underestimated him.' _Kakashi said, the lightning leaving him with third-degree burns and a broken pride. _'This sooo going to make me look soft when the other Jounin-senseis here about this.'__****_

_A/N: Hey guys, it's been a while, ne? I got frustrated of not doing a damn story for my life, as I got MASSIVE writer's block. Growl. Anyway, I came up with this story. Oh yeah, the omake was what I was planning to originally make: A Naruto/Kingdom Hearts cross over, but then, I thought that wasn't very original as it resembled one Naruto/Kingdom Hearts crossover already (Cough, cough.)("Key Through the Heart" by Andrew Joshua Talon, go read it after you review.) (Cough, cough.) and I felt I didn't wanna go through the trouble of people pestering me "Oh, is Sora, Riku, Kairi, Heartless and Nobodies going to show up? Are they going to travel to new worlds? Are you going to make up Keyblades for Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura?" when I didn't know myself, so I changed some text around and behold! I created this fic: Tattoo!_

The wonders Chakra and the human mind could have, ne?

I gotten the idea of storage seals thanks to another fic by Stigma called, "The Genius Losers Of Konoha". Great author, great story, guys. Go check it out, but not before reviewing, ne?

Pairings? Meh, I don't know just yet. As you can see, I don't do those well, as well as fight scenes and lemon scenes. I decided I won't put up the lemon scenes – if there are any in this story – on and instead of . The site I kinda ignored for some time now, despite me being on the site for a year or two. Anyway, I think I would probably appease the NaruSaku fans and put the pairing in there, though I will tease other pairings in this fic, including the yaoi fans, ALTHOUGH there will be no real yaoi in here. If you came to see Naruto and Sasuke get it on, sorry, this isn't for you. I probably might not even have the pairing of NaruSaku in this, as I hate how the character she is but seeing how I created a NaruSaku in the past, I might do what I said before. Meh. I don't know and frankly, I probably won't make that much of romance in this story. This story is just for the lulz or something to say, like, "Eh, not bad".

Original Characters? Don't know and while I'm not totally contemptuous of the idea, I really don't wanna feel attached to the story. When I feel like updating, I will. If I feel I will hit a wall and draw a blank on where things are going with this? Eh, I probably will try to scrap up an idea for the next chappie.

Kakashi? Well, I always wanted him to be more sadistic, more serious with his training of students. This fic will do exactly that. They won't epically powerful super fast, but I guarantee that they will be strong. Personally, I can envision a more sadistic, lazy, sarcastic man in place of the regular Kakashi. He's not going to change a lot but he's a little more darker and surly in his attitude.

Will I stick to canon? Yes and no. Yes, because I think keeping it canon will keep me from going to south with the story, therefore I will be okay and have less blocks in writing. No, because I like variety, and comedy mixed with some stupid-cupid romance, teen-angst and some stupidly-write action. Plus, at the end of the chappie, you'll have a nice omake! Who doesn't like those. =D

Well, I think I'm done talking in this useless Author's Note. Oh yeah, if I don't update this, damn me to hell. Like damn me good.

Until then, folks. I'm Ryu aka DarkMasterStarr and I say, good night, good fight...

Laterz.


	2. Settling In

Key

"..." Human(s)' talking

_'…' Human(s)' thinking_

"**..." Demon(s)'/Summon(s)'/Other's talking**

_**'…' Demon(s)'/Summon(s)'/ Other's talking**_

"_**..." Ethereal voice(s)' talking**_

"_..." Hybrid of Human talking/thinking/Emphasis_

"..." Hybrid of Human-Ethereal/Human-Demon Talking

_'_…_' __Hybrid of Human-Ethereal/Human-Demon Talking_

**Warning: Rated "T" for crude, bad language, sexual tension and violence. Probably will be some "M" rated chapter in the future.**

… Screw it, it IS "M" rated. Not for anybody who isn't 16, 17, or anybody who's gotten some maturity in their brains. If you don't... then, you're still welcomed inside, my friends, because this is all BUT mature.

;D

_**Chapter 1**_

A grin lit up on the tired visage on Naruto Uzumaki. Success! He had to crack a smile that reached up to his cheeks. More closer to the goal! He hopped up and celebrated.

Mr. Uzumaki has been experimenting again.... Oh bad boy. As the broadsword project wasn't crazy enough, he believed this one would come in handy. On his arm, was drawn a katana blade. A decent size on his arm. Naruto had made success of summoning the blade, without using too much chakra and blood. Not that he had to worry about the blood part or a scar of him biting his thumb so much with his canines. Even after re-drawing the katana in difference shapes and angles, he wasn't too winded, just a little tired. However, he wasn't worried about that too much. He was trying to go a step beyond that.

Naruto remarked back when he first used the summoning on his newer sensei and looked at his hand. The drawing of the broadsword was now gone, no traces of it. Why, Naruto did not know. If he wanted to know why the drawing didn't stay as a permanent drawing, a tattoo if you will, in his palm, he probably would have to either experiment, or ask the old man and since Hiruzen Sarutobi was mostly busy these days around as Hokage, Naruto could easily guess that he wasn't going to see, let alone ask him about one technique he had.

However, the technique was so simple, it was complex. On the simpler level, all one had to do is crudely draw on his/her body parts a weapon of their choosing, smear some blood over the draw, pour some chakra over the illustrated area and that's it. But on the complex level, the technique was more detailed than it seemed. In the two hours he got to read the technique – yes, he did just that – and get it down, along with the Kage Bunshin which was more simplier, the technique required the user to draw whatever they wanted on their arm, torso, whatever, but the bigger the size and the more space they used on their body, the more chakra and blood need to be used. Naruto had been using his palms, hands and arms because they didn't will a lot of chakra and blood. But as Naruto read, a larger drawing takes a crap-load of chakra and blood to be spilled. He tried something as big as a horse-slaying saber, the blades he see small-ass guys wield so easily in cartoons and such things like that but he found himself very low on chakra. Even so, that wasn't the reason he was training so hard anyway. He wanted to try a new experiment: keeping the drawing a tattoo and permanent at that.

Of course, it only had been a week since he used the technique in battle and a week since he first learned the technique. Of course, he didn't train with the technique in his team's meetings? Why? Personally, he didn't like the Uchiha bastard still and his heritage was that of an Uchiha. Uchiha were know with their bloodline, something called the Cher-in-gun? He felt that he had mispronounced the bloodline's name but he didn't give a rat's ass about it! Only thing he knew the important aspects of it. He knew the bloodline could copy anybody technique! What the fuck's Kami doing up there?! Blessing some arrogant prick with power like that. It was just a scary thought to Naruto. Somebody could easy steal the technique he worked his ass off for a week, and still have time to take a dump while doing it!~ Oh hell, to the _hizzle no_!! Like he said, he hated "Geniuses". Why? The term basically for "a prodigy child who is born with a silver spoon in his mouth, ass wiped when they could stand on their two feet, and some arrogant jerk who thinks he owns the whole damn world and got millions of girls that followed after them but they were too gay to care and too stuck on revenge to even touch one".

(Sasuke Uchiha and Neji Hyuuga properly sneezed at this time.)

Naruto grunted, dropping the ink brush into its bottle and sighed. Okay, maybe he was letting this "I gotta be strong enough to kick everybody's ass" attitude screw up his mind. Making monologues weren't Naruto's style. Yeah, dattebayo, believe it!! Naruto should have tried concentration on the task at hand, which was trying to make his illustrations tattoos, instead of getting deeper into his ass and brood how much a loser "Geniuses" are.

So, he picked up up that brush and started drawing again over his body and experimented again. From shuriken and kunai, to broadswords to katanas, to explosive tags to bombs, Naruto worked into chakra exhaustion on his bed, muttering peacefully in exhaustion about Sakura-chan and ramen.

"**Pound, pound, pound."**

"Umh." Naruto grunted, turning in his sleep.

"**Pound, pound, pound!"**

He grunted, as the pounds on the door gotten worse. He shifted in his bed, from left to right but refused to open his eyes. "Stop knocking door... Me and Sakura-chan and Ramen-chan are trying to get some...." Naruto trailed off. He went quickly back to his sleep, snoring and snorting loudly in his sleep, as he was splayed out on his bed in a heap.

Giggling in his sleep, he said, "Sakura-chan, I bet you taste like ramen now-"

"**POUND! POUND! SLAM!" **"NARUTO!! GET YOUR ASS UP, BAKA!!" A yell pitched outside his door, sounding very feminine.

Suddenly, the dream of his crush only dressed in large ramen egg noodles and soup broth was gone, replaced with the mess reality of his room. He looked around briefly with one sweeping glance and stopped at his wooden door, as the reason for waking him up from his heavenly dream. He sighed, not bothering to fix anything disheveled on his sleep attire or hair. He stood, grunting at each food step he took and wordlessly opened the door.

To his surprise, the rest of his team showed up on his doorstep. "Kakashi-sensei, Sakura-chan, Uchiha, whatchu guys want?"

Sakura growled and snarled at the boy. "WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?! YOU WERE THREE HOURS LATE!!"

Kakashi snickered, "Yeah, kid, where were ya? Ya should have told us ya would be making it late to the training grounds. Ya made Sakura-chan here worried about ya."

"W-What?!" Sakura stuttered, "No I wasn't!!"

Naruto was too sleep to register Kakashi's comment, have time to look at Sakura unsuccessfully blush at Kakashi's comment or even have time to care. All he said, in fatigue, "Sensei, it's still only 8:00 PM, I got until tomorrow to show up." He muttered sleepily.

"Dope, it's tomorrow. About 12:00 PM." Sasuke deadpanned.

"Oh? Well, I didn't noticed. Hehehe," Naruto chuckled, barely holding his head between the lines of sleep and the lines of awake. "I really was tired last night."

"Oh, why Naruto-kun?" Kakashi asked nonchalantly.

Naruto laughed halfheartedly. "I was training hard last night. Probably into exhaustion."

Kakashi sighed a little, wagging his index finger at the barely-conscious boy. "Tsk, tsk, Naruto. Training everyday is great and all, but ya went overboard there, ne?"

Naruto shrugged, "S'okay. Is all good. Oh well, I'm ready to get to the training grounds now. Let me just get my ninja gear."

Kakashi nodded and then, took a more detailed look onto Naruto's current attire. Kakashi sweatdropped. "Uh, kid, ya don't strike me as this, but are you and exhibitionist?"

"A whut?" Naruto questioned dumbly, finally winning against Hypnos, and finally getting more and more aware of his surroundings.

"A... nudist?" Kakashi helpfully substituted.

Naruto blinked and shook his head. "No, why?"

Kakashi coughed in his fist and said slowly, "Well-"

"Eh?! Naruto, wh-why are you nude?!!" Sakura interrupted, screamed in horror at the site of her teammate in his all-naked glory. There was nothing left to her imagination; everything was there for her to see. _'O-Oh, my~! I... I can see Naruto's... th-thingy?!!' _She slapped her hand over her eyes dramatically, definitely _not _liking what she was seeing here! _'My eyes, my virgin eyes! No! I was saving myself for Sasuke-kun!!'_

_**'Eh. It's not **_**so **_**bad.' **_Inner Sakura helped out. Then, Sakura could feel a smirk pop up in her mind. The voice of her subconscious spoke in a cool voice, _**'It's not like Naruto's putrid. Besides, he's got some nice features, don't cha think?'**_

_'Yeah,' _Sakura unconsciously admitted. _'That chest, that abs, those biceps, his di-' _Horror rocked her mind and Sakura felt the immediate urge go scream and pull her long pink hair out. _'NO! UNPURE THOUGHTS, UNPURE THOUGHTS!! SASUKE-KUN IS THE ONLY PERSON I WANNA SEE LIKE THIS!! RWHAR!! THAT __**BAKA!!!! Ima kill him for making me thing such perverted thoughts!!**__'_

S-so what if Naruto worked out, Sakura questioned, as if she didn't care. She bet Sasuke-kun was totally hotter under his clothing! CHA! But Naruto was... she trailed off, dropping her hand slowly off her eyes, trying hard not to stare at Naruto...  
_  
_Naruto seemed to notice Sakura's statement from before only, proud of himself for being more aware of what the hell his team was saying – blissfully unaware of her blush, a few droplets of drool dripping down her chin, and the scowl she had on her face now. He looked at his attire or lack therefore of. Forgetting he had Sakura in his company for a moment, he shrugged, not sheepish in one thing he was unconsciously showing, "I guess I was so tired last night that I fell asleep before I can finish dressing up in my pajamas." He snickered a little, seemingly only embarrassed at that. "Sorry for the trouble, guys. Really was tired last night. Oh well, let me go-"

"YOU PERVERT!! HOW _DARE_ YOU FLASH YOURSELF IN FRONT OF A GIRL!!" Sakura roared. Naruto looked at her in confusion and didn't have time to mull over what she meant when she tried to knock his head clean off with her slugging fist. The girl had a mean right hook, but her left was just as terrifying. Naruto cried out pathetically before he was driven sickeningly to the wooden floor of his house but not before his body bounced onto the dresser, spilling all of his ink on his naked torso.

Kakashi moaned in some exhaustion himself. _'They don't pay me enough to do this kind of shit. If it wasn't for the Kyuubi, the boy probably would stack up some nice hospital bills for his injuries. That girl seriously is crazier than I first thought. Waaayyy too bipolar.' _"Sakura, with the way you keep hitting the boy, he won't even be able to drag his carcass to the training grounds. Don't hit him again, or you'll be draggin' him to the training ground, in _that _condition already."

Again, Kakashi loved to sadistic. He watched joyfully as Sakura squirmed a little at his ultimatum. However, he looked at Sakura with some morbid confusion as she seemed to put her hand on her chin, further thinking about it, which Kakashi somewhat shuddered. He was pleased to know she was rather embarrassed at that, and nodded wordlessly, backing up from the outside of Naruto's door more. He groaned. _'Don't tell me the Haruno girl is attracted to Naruto as well. Ugh! As if hearing "Sasuke-kun!" in most of her sentences, I would hate her saying, "Naruto-kun!"as well.'_

"Oi, Naruto? Ya alive down there?" Kakashi said offhandedly. Said boy groaned down on the floor, holding the right side of his face in pain no doubt. "Close ya legs, kid and get dressed. We'll wait for another thirty minutes." Looking at Sakura, he said to her slyly and seriously, "And no peaking!"

Sakura vehemently nodded, albeit slowly and... was that disappointment on her face? Kakashi groaned. _'Again: they don't pay enough for this shit. I shoulda stayed as ANBU. At least I would have to deal with kids.'_

The three strode to the training grounds. Far from a silent walk, Sasuke noted, stifling a groan. Kakashi was lazily reading that "Icha Icha" book, while Sakura and Naruto bickered like newlyweds on the way to Training Grounds Seven. Now, Sasuke wasn't the greatest at emotions, or expressing them. Nor was he very much of a talkative person, but for once, Haruno wasn't trying to talk to him. In fact, she was just too busy arguing with Naruto's "little show" today. (And he did mean "little"! Ain't no way that Uzumaki was "bigger" than him!!) Sasuke wasn't as oblivious or dumb – Sasuke didn't truly see the difference between "oblivious" and "stupidity" - as Naruto or wasn't as indifferent than Kakashi. He seen Sakura sneak looks at the fox-like blonde.

Not that he cared, he shrugged truthfully. Although... he did see an opportunity open up! You couldn't say Sasuke Uchiha was an opportunist. He'll take any chance he could get! But what, what opportunity would he see; from what did he want to escape from? Sakura Haruno's crush on him, that is! Think about it! What if she didn't like him anymore? Then, she couldn't be his fan girl! Then, he would be able to get home securely, sure enough that he wasn't going to be stalked home by her. One less fan girl on his back meant a lot less trouble! Maybe he could actually train in peace then!! OH, THE POSSIBILITIES!!

_'Mwhahahahahaha!!'_ He cackled in his mind. '_Yes, that's perfect! Buddha, I'll be one step close to killing_ him _without worrying about whether or not some random fan girl is going to jump out of my bushes and try to rape me.' _He shuddered last time that happened. Never mind her being physically attractive, Sasuke Uchiha had a vendetta to kill the man he hate so much. He didn't have time for girls, boobies, or whatever a girl had on her!

_**'Although,' **_Inner Sasuke said to his conscious half. _**'That kinda makes you seem gay, dude. You aren't gay are you?'**_

_'W-What?! No!! I'm not gay! I'm... I'm just concentration in my ambition than to even pay attention to any girl! It's called abstinence!'_

_**'Pfft, yesterday, you called it "ambitious". A week ago, you called it "asexuality". You know what I call it?'**_

Sasuke growled back to himself. (Crazy) _'Don't you _dare _say it.'_

The usual Uchiha-smirk came up, directed to Sasuke's own self. _**'Dude, I'm your subconscious. I refract anything you wanna say, do, ask, or be. I am , essentially, a collection of your real thoughts, desires, whatever. Therefore, I know when I say that you're gay, that you're **_**gay**_**.'**_

Sasuke would glare at himself if that was possible. _'Screw you.'_

_**'Bet you'd like that.'**_

_'No I wouldn't!!' _Sasuke blushed in anger, frustration hitting his face.

Which coincidentally – to the author's sadism – wasn't lost on Sakura, who stopped arguing with Naruto a few seconds ago. "Sasuke-kun, are you okay?" She said, concerned at his blush. "Sasuke-kun, do you feel a little under the weather?"

She put up a hand to Sasuke's forehead but before she touched his forehead, he harshly slapped her hand away.

"Hn! I'm fine." He said simply, ignoring Sakura's deflated, teary face.

"O-oh." She said simply, trying to not look at Sasuke.

"Wow, that's the most I see out of a response from you, Uchiha." Naruto exaggerated. "Uchiha, leave her alone." Naruto said, crossing his arms in a scowl. "She was worried about ya ass. The least ya can do is show some gratitude."

"Pfft, whatever." Sasuke grunted out, ignoring the seething face of Naruto and the virtually-depressed face of the girl. Sasuke sighed, indifferent to Naruto's obvious jealous face.

_'Meh, if you shut your mouth, Uzumaki, you could just have the fan girl. No skin off my nose. I would actually be happy you did.' _Sasuke shrugged. _'But knowing them, Sakura would rather kill him than like him.'_

Sasuke wasn't playing no matchmaker for anybody – let them figure it out themselves. Although, maybe it would help him get Sakura off his back faster. Seeing the loving glaze Sakura gave him, he sighed in annoyance. _'Okay, maybe I'll play matchmaker then, just to get her of my back.'_

Meanwhile, Kakashi looked at everyone of his team and sighed in annoyance. _'These kids are so undisciplined. They don't know what it takes to be a ninja, nor do they have the necessary skills, despite them having potential to be something.' _That much was true. Each one of them didn't know and probably shouldn't be exposed to all a ninja's troubling career path chose. He could think a lot of things ninja had to do in order to stay alive, such as know how to take a person's life, whether man or female. A ninja must pledge themselves to the mission, if not the mission, the people that he/she was teammates to, and the nation itself, or face dishonor to its fullest.

Before the time of Naruto and his generation, Kakashi's nation saw dishonor in abandoning the mission itself. Honor came with duty and death. Konohagakure, who seems softer to other nations now, bred a generation who were more tightfisted than this generation. The nation as a whole were tightfisted about honor. Kakashi dully thought of his disgraced father, Sakumo Hatake or also known as the "White Fang", who lost his honor because he saved his teammates, instead of carrying on with the mission. Now, in this day and age, thankfully, that would seem honorable, however, that wasn't the case years ago. Sakumo's own teammates, the teammates he saved, wanted nothing more to do with him after that day. They themselves lost honor and respect in Sakumo, to Sakumo's self-defeat. In Sakumo's downfall, this was the main reason he ended his life, besides the immediate drop of his skills. Honor, back then, was achievable in duty and death, and since he could not do the duty of a ninja under the state, Sakumo committed suicide. It wasn't until the horrors see in future wars and attacks made by man or beasts like Kyuubi, the Nine-Tailed Fox, that that rule and standard was thrown out the window.

But his generation grew on it! It hardened them, it hardened him! And he would be _damned_ if he sat around, not teaching these kids some aspects of ninja. He would be shamed if he didn't. No, he wasn't a hypocrite at all. He would not favor not one of these kids. Not Sakura because she was a woman and the weakest of them. Not Sasuke because he had a dormant bloodline and not Naruto because of his predicament. They will learn and if was it to be the hard way...

Then Kakashi didn't have trouble cracking the whip at them. Not at all. Actually, cracking the whip – literally speaking now – would build character, not to mention teach the kids some damn respect. He shouldn't be screamed at Sakura for coming late, _dammit_! His team should _enjoy_ his jokes, no matter how lame and perverted they were.

Kakashi sweatdropped at his ranting in his head. Boy, did he need to get out more. _'I'm getting off topic. I'm definitely going to teach these kids properly. Would want to become some lazy guy, who only favors one person on the team just because I was assigned to do so, or I can only help them or something.'_

"Alright, kiddies. It's time to stop your lovers' quarrel, Uzumaki and Haruno." Kakashi ignored the one-sided denials from Sakura – Naruto just shrugged, really not minding Kakashi saying implying the two were lovers. "It's time for training. Since we couldn't get proper training done thanks to Naruto being late." After Sakura's heated glare at said boy and the boy himself shrugged, grinning in embarrassment, Kakashi sighed. "I decided since it's Friday, and I'm all-so nice," Kakashi smiled despite the groans told him that he was definitely not nice. "That I will give ya guys a Friday treat."

"What? Teamwork training again?" Naruto inquired.

Kakashi shook his head. "Nah, after the past week, I think ya guys are better with the teamwork thing, at least better than the first time ya were on this team."

"Sooo, what then?"

Kakashi smiled. "I wanna see where I can play ya guys in skills."

"Eh?" All three said dumbly.

Kakashi crossed his arms. "Ya guys got potential." Kakashi waited for them all to smile or smirk in happiness/arrogance until he said, "But it's going to be wasted if ya don't expand in your specialties."

"Sasuke, your skills are in ninjutsu and taijutsu. You're obviously more faster than Naruto or Sakura." Sasuke's smirk was once again on his face.

"Sakura, your chakra coils are very decent for a Genin, you have a well-rounded amount of ninja history, geography and knowledge on your shoulders and I can see your skills being applied to the more complex system of Genjutsu and Medical Ninjutsu then regular." Sakura's modest smile edged off her youthful face at Kakashi's words.

Kakashi turned to Naruto. "Even though you look like you got no skills." Naruto scowled at Kakashi's words and his teammates' stifled laughter. "But your skills can be applied more and ya overall can become a more rounded ninja. I can see ya applying yourself to the more ignored Kenjutsu area, the tactical, last-minute strategist type or a trap-expert. From your... 'technique' I saw," Naruto was more thankful Kakashi didn't say anything that would cause questions. Naruto tried to ignore the questioning looks, especially from Sasuke. "I think endless tools can be at your disposal, as long as you train at it."

Naruto grinned, a fusion of modest and arrogance. "Of course!"

Kakashi smiled himself. "So, today, I just wanna give ya guys some help in those areas. I am a well-rounded ninja myself, so I have trained in each one of those things I listed, at least the basics. I got tons of scrolls I can divulge with ya guys. On Fridays, I'll start doing this – give ya guys scrolls ya must master. If ya don't master a scroll, I'm not giving ya another scroll."

"Speaking of which, I want to get more skills under ya belt, so listen up. Ya guys will be learning specific lessons each week. The last week and the last few days, I didn't have a schedule for ya guys since we was all getting new to the whole 'team' thingy but by next week, since I believe only your teamwork will solidify with the more skills ya got, ya will be tasked to learn something before the week's up. Learning something before Friday comes brings newer scrolls also. I want ya guys to know a lot of skills, but I also want ya guys to be masters of ya skills, understand?" When they nodded, he nodded to them.

"Great, now, ya kids are getting some treat today. I will give ya guys the rest of the day of, to do whatever ya wanna do in town or at home," He looked at their happier faces again. "But I wanna see something."

"What, sensei?" Sakura asked.

"Ya guys are familiar with all of the elements, correct? Fire, Water, Lightning, Earth, and Wind?" They nodded. "Well, are you familiar with the term, 'Element Affinity'?"

"'Element' a-fun-unity? The hell is that?" Naruto dumbly questioned.

Sakura scoffed. "Naruto, Element Affinity is when a ninja specializes in one element."

"Really?"

"Yes Naruto, Sakura is correct. To be more precise, it's about having the greatest control over an element. All ninjas have an affinity in one element and utilize more techniques in one element, hence the specific naming of some ninjutsu techniques."

"Um, so that means I could only learn techniques from one element?"

Kakashi shook his head. "That doesn't mean that at all. It just means it's easier to learn elemental techniques in one element. If you have an affinity for Fire techniques, you would an easier time learning techniques that are Fire-typed instead of learning Water-typed. Also, some ninjas could use two elements at once by some special means, such as a **Kekkai Genkai **or a bloodline. The fusion creates a stronger, powerful sub-element that takes on the strengths of the two, and the two elements cover each others weaknesses. In fact, with each element comes a weakness. Fire is cooled down by Water, Water is slowed down by Earth, Earth is crumpled and crippled by Lightning, Lightning is wavered by Wind, and Wind will only make Fire stronger, therefore, Wind is weak to Fire. However, the weaknesses can be overcome by the strength of the technique. A weak water technique cannot hold its own against a very intimidating fire technique. The water will evaporate with contact."

He paused and opted his students to sit down on the dew-ed grass below them. "In any case, I'm getting off topic again. The reason I'm going through this is because I wanna see what your affinities are. Therefore, you'll get more stuff under your belt as ninjas."

"Hurray! Geez, I wonder what my type is.... Wonder I can shoot fires out my finger tips, or make a tsunami by sweating or throw a mountain~!" Naruto voiced his wonders boisterously, having the others smiling, included Sasuke's small smile.

Kakashi chuckled. "Calm down, Naruto. You'll never know if ya tire ya self out with pondering like that."

Naruto went still and sat down again, stopping his fantasies of farting, light up his fart and shooting an inferno out his butt. "Yes, sensei!"

Kakashi nodded and went for his inner pockets. Out the pockets, he pulled out seemingly regular paper sheets.

"Um, what's the paper for, sensei?"

"This is not ordinary paper. This special paper. It comes from a special tree, who's bark reacts to chakra in different ways. It, the paper, reacts to chakra in a special way. We call this simply, 'Chakra Paper'."

"What's the 'chakra paper' for?" Sakura asked.

"This is for figuring out what's your element. You see these paper sheets will react in special ways that will tell what you element is."

"Great!" Naruto voiced, grinning. However, the grinned was somewhat subdued after he asked, "Um, what we gotta do?"

"Just feed the paper with little chakra. It doesn't gotta be a lot, if you aren't trying to do something melodramatic. If your element is Fire, the paper will ignite, combust completely until the paper turns to ash. If your element is Water, the paper will dampen and get soggy. If your element is Earth, the paper with get so dirty, it will turn to dirt. If your element is Lightning, the paper with crumple up in a tight ball. If your element is Wind, your paper will commence to rip, cleave into two cleanly." He held the paper out from his two hands and said persuasively, "Who wants to go first?"

"Hn. I'll go first," Sasuke said, seemingly careless, but like the others, he was ecstatic and whisked away with wonder. However, he had a feeling he already knew what his element was.

Sasuke feed a small sample of chakra to the paper and not surprisingly did the paper ignite into flames and burn down into ashes quickly. Kakashi nodded to him, "Congrats, Sasuke, you have the affinity to Fire. It's powerful, hot, stubborn, and lively. I suspected you had an affinity of Fire anyway. Not surprising, seeing that most Uchiha's affinities lie in Fire."

"Eh." Sasuke slurred out, shrugging before sitting down again. He was a little disappointed that his affinity wasn't something else, but oh well, he said inwardly. _'I been using Fire forever. The more experience I have, the better my techniques and the faster I'll get to my goal.'_

"Sakura?" Kakashi waved to her to come over. She did what she asked wordlessly, and nodded to her to start. She repeated what she saw Sasuke did, by feeding the strange paper chakra. Soon enough, she saw the paper slowly poured with water, heavily, getting damper and damper, until it was at its soggiest in Kakashi's now wet gloved hand. He nodded to her also. "Congratulations, Sakura, your element is Water. Most people who is medical users use techniques that are calm and soothing like water, which means most are adept in water techniques." _Although, you are all but calm_, Kakashi left out, laughing a little to himself. Still, the girl probably still had a good heart under her ugly exterior. And there was still ample time to break her of her lovestruck, frivolous attitude, so there was still hope for the pinkette.

Sakura nodded, satisfied with the new knowledge and sat down wordlessly to Sasuke.

"Naruto, come on." Kakashi prodded. Naruto nodded, and bounced up from his seat next to Sakura. "Follow the other two's example, Naruto."

"Got cha." Naruto said, and stared at the paper for a second. Then, slowly, he channeled some chakra into the paper and watched as his paper lifted out of Kakashi's hand. Suddenly, in its free fall, it cleaved into two halves by an invisible blade. Naruto blinked in some awe. "My power is Wind?"

Kakashi nodded. "Wind is one of the more interesting element, Naruto. It's precise, calm, quiet, powerful; frisky when want to be and deadly the next. The power of Wind is unpredictable. Much like you. It's a nice element."

Naruto nodded and then, out of curiosity, he asked, "Kakashi-sensei, what's your affinity?"

Kakashi was actually surprised Naruto wanted to know, but it quickly wore off. "My element is rare in these parts of the world, much like yours. My affinity is Lightning. It's fast, paralyzing, cold and piercing. My current arsenal of Lightning Jutsu are lagging."

"Why? I mean, you can do more techniques with Lightning, so why don't you learn more?"

"While this is true, Naruto, I rather be rounded in every element than just one. Most Jounins learn to master more than one element, two to be exact. It takes a long time to master your element, let alone round yourself in every one of them. But I like more variety in my technique."

"How many techniques do you know, sensei? I mean, in all."

"Eh." Kakashi shrugged. "A few hundred." Kakashi said smoothly.

"Wow." Sakura and Naruto said as one. Although Sasuke didn't voice it, he was looking at Kakashi with some interest and awe. Kakashi shrugged nonchalantly. "It's not about me though. I'm here to teach you kids, not myself. Now that I know your elemental advantages, I will give you guys the basic scrolls how to do some of those techniques. Seeing how Sasuke has some experience with Fire already, I'll give you a more advance form of Fire-techniques. Sound good for everybody?"

All three nodded, equally satisfied, even the headstrong Naruto who could have easily felt jealous Sakura and Sasuke got the more renounced, more cliché elemental affinity than him. However, seeing the little display his paper gave him when he tested chakra on it, he was evenly pleased at his elemental advantage and went with it with pride.

The rest of the day was more information than training. Kakashi talked about skills they could improve in, their weaknesses, affinities again and other ninja shop-talk.  
When the subject of "missions" was brought up by Naruto, Kakashi shrugged and gave the answer, "Don't worry too much about them. We'll concentrate on you gaining more knowledge of the ninja world than traveling out the village and not know where the hell you are at." Which made sense, a lot. It was better to know what was going outside the village, and some decent geography of places. It didn't have to be detailed – it had to be enough for them to know when they were walking into ally territory and when they were leaving it. "Besides," He snickered after. "You guys would do D-Rank missions and trust me, they're like Hell and all. You'll be better off not doing anything but getting stronger in the process. No real experience is earned when you're doing Hokage-sama's little errands around the city."

For about three, four good hours, they talked politics as well, which quickly became Naruto's favorite subject in future days after that. It was informative, nice change for a pace. In the academy, most politics, especially when it seemed seedy or war-toting, was left out, leaking in minor incidents and information, and Konohagakure's legacy with the benefactors of the village or something obvious like the Kyuubi Attack On Konoha – not Naruto's favorite. But out here, Kakashi didn't leave much out about the good and the bad of Konoha's history. They talked about Konoha's former tightfisted policy Kakashi's generation lived through – how honor meant everything in the ninja world, like a samurai. Naruto's debates weren't missed on Team 7 and while Sakura and Sasuke groaned and moaned, obviously not enjoy how dumb old Naruto always had a question or how he debated on a single topic for a good twenty minutes, Kakashi suspected they secretly enjoyed how Naruto lengthened the conversation, never letting it falter for a second. Kakashi himself liked Naruto's talking, even though it was a little too loud for his taste sometimes. Naruto always seem to get up a comment or say something about what they said, which Kakashi smiled at. Despite the title of "dead last", Naruto seem to like to read, to listen – albeit it was for his purposes or if it was interesting – and he like to input in his voice.

Which Kakashi didn't have a problem with.

This was something that was going to build up the team, something that was going to make them bond and this bond was only to get stronger and stronger each day. Like he said before, if ya can't count on the team, ya can't count on nobody. And slowly, to Kakashi liking, a new team was formed.

A Team Minato incarnate.

After the time of politics, light humor, crude joking (on Naruto and Kakashi's part), and playfully fighting (Sakura seem to get along with Naruto as their time deepened), each one of them was to part ways. It wasn't without the "Sakura-ask-Sasuke-out-but-he-doesn't-go-out-with-her-on-the-date-because-he-was-"ambitiously abstinent"-and-he-rather-go-home" or "Naruto-asks-out-the-post-depressed-Sakura-but-gets-as-much-as-luck-as-she-did-with-the-Uchiha", but at least it was a good day.

Naruto sat home, paint brush in its black bottle peacefully, fully forgotten when Naruto had gotten home. He was too wrapped in the former buzzing of talking in his ears, the pleasant conversation still entered his head strongly. God, the first time he actually _liked _talking to anybody besides Iruka-sensei. He smiled, jumping into his bed as soon as he got comfortable in his froggy pajamas and silly hat. Despite him being exposed to the mature life of a ninja, he was perfectly fine being a kid at times.

He was 12 years old, after all.

He keep hearing those pleasant sounds of an actually human conversation. No dreams of demons, villagers or anything like that popped up.

_**A La Fin! ...for now!!**_

OMAKE!!! 2

_'It's just one of those days.' _Kakashi groaned. After yesterday, he thought today was destined to be better. Unsurprisingly, he was wrong. Kami, Buddha, Jesus, Jehovah, Zeus, Shiva, any one of those Heavenly dudes, why have you made his day more?! "Naruto, kid, you must be an exhibitionist. Nobody wakes up and answers the door naked _twice_!"

"Um, well, sensei." The sheepish answer came, "I was kinda sleepwalking last night. My dream seemed so real! And I guess," Naruto blushed a little, "It got a little um... _mature_." Naruto smartly substituted "X-Rated" with "Mature" to get over Sakura's head.

However, Karma was a bitch and strangely had a mean right hook like Sakura. While his comment might have been lost on Sakura, his current state of being was not. It wasn't long before Naruto was crumpled mess on the floor, driven down face fist. Naruto barely rolled on his back, as he groaned loudly in pain, crying out "Why did Sakura-hime take Ramen-chan away?" or whatever. Kakashi sighed, not wincing a bit at Naruto's crash. However, since he didn't want to go visit the hospital or accumulate a bill from Naruto's injuries – Kyuubi's healing process was already probably trying to heal back the broken cheekbones Sakura gave Naruto. With all his nerves and strength, with his palming his face hardly, Kakashi said, "Sakura! Get off Naruto and trying to straddle his neck.... That's too mature for you guys!!"

He groaned and turned to his only free student in hope of him to get Sakura from stradding Naruto (wait, was she digging her hips into him?!!). "Sasuke! Get Sakura off h- Sasuke?" Kakashi looked at his student and moaned pitifully. Sasuke seemed to stare straight with hints of blood and drool on his face. Kakashi groaned again in disgust as he figured out where or _who _his onyx student stared out with that dumb look on his face. Kakashi's strict boomed,"Sasuke! Snap the hell out of it now! SASUKE!!"

"...not gay, ambitious." Sasuke muttered, reluctantly – _'What the fuck?!'_ Kakashi screamed in horror - taking his gaze off of Naruto's downed body to pry off Sakura who she herself was reluctant to get off of the nude Naruto, who still didn't know where the hell he was now or who he was ("_I am the Ramen King, King of the Egg Noodles Kingdom~!" _Naruto said delirously) now.

Kakashi shook his head in annoyance and muttered, "_I'm starting to regret liking these crazy kids now._"

_A/N: Another chapter down! Yay for me!! And yay for you, ya crazy people. I update twice in one week. Although this chapter is much smaller than the other one, I enjoyed making this one. I felt I did some good things with this chapter. Now I know where I'm go with this story, so less blocks!! Yah, I'll start off a little less-canon but they are going to go and take the mission to Wave, although, probably not the same period it was in the anime. I'm still going to make everything that happened happen. From Naruto fighting in Wave, to the Chunnin Exams, to Gaara vs Naruto arc, all until the Naruto vs Sasuke fight. Then, I'll probably wouldn't know where to take it. Bah, I'll worry about it later._

I'm surprised I got this much attention over two days! Thanks! I'll try to make this story not too bad!! Forgive me for my mistakes, but if we were all peaceful here, I'm sure it will be okay. I think I'm going to do the whole "Wave incident" in one whole chapter, as I rather a big, length chapter, than small things. I mean, not so meaty that I can't take it, but I wanna feel like the story wasn't rushed too much. I think them figuring out their elemental affinities won't hurt. I mean, it's not like they are given power on a silver platter. When I mean an element takes years to master, I mean it. No Sasuke, Naruto or Sakura is going to be super-super powerful here, dammit!

Speaking of with, I was tempted to give Sakura a dual element affinity nature. I see Sakura as a Water-type because she's a future medic and has skills in healing jutsus, despite her seeming like she's not really too much a difference in Shippuden. But, I see Sakura as an Earth type. Earth seems so plain, so normal, and Earth seemed to be more about strength than any element, as she seen showing monstrous strength under Tsunade's wing in Shippuden. So, I was going to make her paper damp in murky dirty water, until it turned soggy and dirty, therefore, she would be a fusion of Water and Earth. But eh, I also told myself that Sakura can't seem to have two elements. It didn't seem all to fair, despite she would need two elements since she's tenfold weaker than Naruto and Sasuke upon this point in canon.

Sasuke and Naruto's elemental affinity is obvious and they will learn moves in and out of their specialties. I'll probably included fusion/sub-elements like Ice or Wood or Lava or anything I make up in the process.

In other news, I think I'm better off not doing a pairing in this or hint one but not do it at all. I don't think they got time to love at all if they wanna be stronger. Attraction is all its going to be for now. No NaruSaku, definitely no SasuSaku and no NaruSasu, unfortunately for my Yaoi brothers and sisters. I can't do it. I'll tease ya but not really write it. Another thing is a personal: Stigma is on a hiatus?! No!! His writing is great!! But dammit, if college life does that, I'll never be able to finish my fics at this pace!! I'm already a High School senior, dammit! Pretty soon college is going to be calling me._****_

Sigh

_Well, I guess I'll make like a doritito in a fat chick's mouth and be gone before ya know it. Review and thanks for reading._

:D

~ The "R", Ryu.


	3. October 10th Sky

Key

"..." Human(s)' talking

_'…' Human(s)' thinking_

"**..." Demon(s)'/Summon(s)'/Other's talking**

_**'…' Demon(s)'/Summon(s)'/ Other's talking**_

"_**..." Ethereal voice(s)' talking**_

"_..." Hybrid of Human talking/thinking/Emphasis_

"..." Hybrid of Human-Ethereal/Human-Demon Talking

_'_…_' __Hybrid of Human-Ethereal/Human-Demon Talking_

**Warning: Rated "T" for crude, bad language, sexual tension and violence. Probably will be some "M" rated chapter in the future.**

… Screw it, it IS "M" rated. Not for anybody who isn't 16, 17, or anybody who's gotten some maturity in their brains. If you don't... then, you're still welcomed inside, my friends, because this is all BUT mature.

Also, the more darker, angst-filled moments are in this chapter. This includes mentions of death, murder, vomiting. I'll try not to get too graphic. Try.  
If this chapter disturbs you, walk away. Do not flame me at all about it. (Actually, this is pretty softcore with angst. It's still humor and such in this chapter.)

ENJOY!!

;D_****_

It was a cold night.

The pressure was tight.

Surprising.

The weather was always hot and warm and comfortable in this city-state/village. Maybe it was just side of town. Which he shouldn't had stumble upon. He knew it. He most certainly didn't live here in this side and he wouldn't have. This side was more brutal, more angry then the other side. Or maybe it was the same side, the same people, the same crap he had to experience? Or maybe it was simply the change of time, as dusk, as night fell, that made it worst? These people's faces, their visages always changed when night came. In morning and afternoon, they were indifferent, rude and silently contemptuous. In the night, they made a promise to hurt him bodily and mentally.

And it hurt a lot.

Kunai knives made it obvious that ninjas were attacking him, among those who wanted to hurt him, to damage him, to even kill him.

Whispers, darker than his own thoughts of the attacks on him, said, in a seductive voice, as velvety as it was firm, and potently scary, 'Why do you let them do this to you?'

_'W-why?' __**He asked himself and the voice.**_

_**'You are to be a god among these sheep... you have power within you. Mines and yours.'**_

_'Mines and...' __**He trailed off, flinching at another man snarling at his neck, stabbing him with a common kitchen knife.**_

_**'You can take my power as yours. Borrow it, so you can use it.'**_

_'Use it... for what?'_

_**A small but subtle dark chuckle began in the darkest depths in his mind. It rang through his head. And then, the seductive, soft but firm voice was gone, replaced with an savage growl from a beast instead of a woman.**_ _**'TO SLAY THEM ALL!'**_

The night had gotten even darker and before he knew it, his mind was gone...

Only left with his despair and hatred.

_**Streaks of red began to pour out the downed boy, blades prodding out his back now melt under the heat and pressure of the poisonous chakra. Power unimaginable in the aura, but an ominous power nobody could control. Naruto's features quickly became more demonic, more menacing. The villagers and ninjas there screamed, "Demon!", "Oh my god, the Kyuubi lives!!", "Protect yourselves! The demon has become once more again."**_

Naruto roared and out his dirty finger nails, came out blackened talons that dripped off that orange-red aura.

And then chaos broke out once more.  


'_**Nothing short of a genocide'**__, _he remembered as She whispered to him. _'__**To all who hurt and opposed you, let your rage consume their souls.'**_

Naruto woke up, screaming, as if he was winded from a breath. He breathed shallowly and hard, as he looked at his naked bare chest, sweat glistening off of it. He looked at the white covers and orange-yellow cover on his whiter pillow. He sighed in relief.

He wasn't in the place he thought he was in. Thank god, thank god a million times, he exhaustively thought in his ragged mind. Mopping sweat of his brow that he noticed was threatening to drop into his almost soulless blue eyes, he thought back on the dream.

It's been almost three years now. Three years of this shit, he sourly thought. Every negative feeling was brought up during and after he had those dreams. Rage, hatred, – whether self-hatred or something akin to misanthropy – confusion, depression, frustration – the usual feeling he felt these days. Naruto was officially thirteen today, and he honestly opted to stay inside today and tonight. A quiet morning, a quieter afternoon, and a silent night.

Of course, he thought sardonically amused, that wouldn't be so. It was never so. And being a ninja didn't help too well now on this day. No, October 10 was the most – as Shikamaru Nara says - "troublesome" of the year. Sure, the attacks stopped when he became a ninja but the attacks were still ever so brutal, especially when ninjas were involved, especially on this day. He winced at the bruises he still had, the scars that couldn't go away. His.... "healing process", or whatever he deemed it – he was more on the idea of "it" being "luck" - still didn't hide the small scars that he had, the mental scars, any scar intangible. It only slowed down how fast he bled, and closed the wounds. It was until he... _killed_ some villagers that he got the impression that nobody, at least villagers, wanted to fight him. Ninjas, as small and foolish as up to Chunnin Rank tried to hurt him. The more his ninja training progress, the more had that ninja training paid off. After a few years inside the academy – _'Failing at that_', he though sourly again – he noticed that he moved faster from their attacks and their attempts were insufficient and tolerable, dare he say it. Sometimes, he would let them hit them, sometimes he would dodge. When he came to a falling point of his life, he let them do whatever they wanted with him. He really felt that deep about it. At a point his sunshine attitude at nine-years old died, and he became increasingly depressed. Instead of running in fear, he stood his ground. Instead of running away from their inevitable attacks, he stood there and took him right there. And for a moment there, he knew the meaning of death and he wasn't afraid....

Until it happened. Power, unmerciful power coursed through him. Power that shouldn't had been his own. Power that crushed....

_'I think I'm going to be sick...' _He trailed off the last thoughts before he did feel sick. But he knew what happened, and why it happened.

For three years, he tried to forget and move on, but what happened there caused a great debacle at Konoha, especially in the political work force. Naruto at first, before he entered the academy, was watched under deep surveillance by Hokage and Council after that day. The old man Hokage tried to play it off as for "his own protection". At age nine, Naruto wasn't that gullible.

But he tried moving on anyway.

He didn't say anything to anybody because he didn't want anything from them. He didn't want their mercy. At that fact, who wants to give him mercy? He could only forget so much and forgive so little. He can still remember the villagers' fearful expressions after the debacle struck in Konoha and how they still feared him for lashing out like that. However, he suspected the reason why the Council and the Hokage let him in the Academy, was because the attacks on him had increased, until the climax on October 10th, three years ago. He could remember despairingly the day he killed those villagers. Self-disgust rose out his stomach in a bile form, as he felt the urge to vomit. No matter what time, or day, or week, or year it was from that day, he always felt the urge to vomit. It was just the thought of it. Villagers, all piled up like discarded clothing, in a heap of blood and fleshy chunks of skin and muscle. Their eyes, their, he cried out. Their eyes were dead and gray, blackened by their lives being stole away.

Naruto jumped up and made a B-line to his gray bathroom. Thanking his god that he left the wooden bathroom door open, he swung the toilet seat up with careless rigor and held his head above the water, finally throwing up a orange-yellow liquid, inundating the waters. He dunked his head again, feeling another wave of nausea, before chucking up more of the vomit. He spread his legs, feeling the uncontrollable feeling fading slowly. When he felt the urge to vomit gone from his body, he grimaced. _'Well, I guess that pork and vegetable ramen I had last night is showing its colors.' _The joke did not lighten his mood, as he sighed, backing the back of his head to the closed toilet seat, not bothering to hear the toilet flushing or wonder how he even summoned the strength to flush the toilet. _'Don't think of _that _anymore if you don't wanna throw up the food you ate hours ago.' _He struggled to get up and haul himself back to his bedroom. When he succeeded, he sighed in relief, laying his head on his dried pillow; no traces of sweat was evident on his pillow like when he woke up from that nightmare. His bed sheets still felt somewhat damp thanks to his still sweaty torso and legs. In all that fuss, he forgot to wipe his mouth of the vomit he had. Silently, he did just that, not even bothering to care about brushing his teeth or wash his mouth out. Well, it's not like he didn't care. It was more like he didn't have the strength to.

He looked at his alarm clock, hazy-eyed as he when he woke up out his sleep. The clock blinked, "2:00" in a green florescent light. The digital clock wasn't set to go off until "8:00", one hour off the time he was supposed to be at his team's training grounds. Naruto grunted miserably – it only left him five more hours of sleep. But it wasn't like this was the first time he woke up out his sleep because of the nightmare. If it wasn't ramen-filled dreams, beating Sasuke's ass dreams, Sakura-filled dreams – those are always border-lining "R" rated, to his embarrassing pleasure – or becoming Hokage, those nightmare showed up in bunches. Despite those pleasurable dreams he had before the mentioned nightmares, the nightmares were still evident in his mind, always happening to pop up, especially when he tried to get sleep the night that happened, the villagers being killed by him. He stopped himself before he felt he had to blow up with vomit and just hit his head with the pillow.

_'Get some sleep, Naruto.' _He looked at the digital alarm clock, blinking to him that it was "2:03 AM". _'Today is already going to be troublesome if I let it.'_

And so, the boy drove himself into the Sandman's clutches....

Although, the nightmares still played in his head and again he heard _Her_ voice again.__

…

_**Chapter 2**_

Morning wasn't without a burden. A lack. Naruto, even after keeling over in sweat, fear and vomit, Naruto could not force himself to proper sleep. In fact, Naruto stayed up those hours, with his eyes closed. Nothing happened after that. Perhaps he was just too fearful of what happened in his dreams, Naruto got no sleep at all. Naruto gotten up at 7:00 when the clock set for 8:00 AM. It took him a good hour of a cold shower to get him to stay up and feel a little better. Since it was a hotter day today, his jacket wasn't going to be very great wear. And his orange pants were in the wash since he forgot to take them out last night and let them dry. He sighed and moved sluggishly to his wooden dresser. Annoyingly, he stuck his hand and arm in the top draw and put a fresh pair of underwear and a tank top. Groaning at the site of no t-shirts were clean, he just keep on the black tank top, and went to get some pants.

Knowing he had one or two different pairs of pants, he threw on dark colored pants on – they looked like they were maroon, blackish red. Putting on his signature boot-sandal hybrid in black, he grabbed his frog wallet and stuck it into his pockets. He looked in the mirror and looked down, feeling awkward in his newer clothing. He shrugged, trying to adjust in his clothing – _'It's only for today', _he thought casually. _'I'll make sure I'll pick them up from the wash today. Probably by that time they'll be drier._

He also shrugged at the ink there, sitting quietly on his wooden drawer. For once, he didn't feel like experimenting before he went off to Training Grounds7, despite him having ample to do so. He remembered he had gotten up a hour before he was suppose to get up. He think he was better off getting up anyway, he supposed. It's better doing something than laying in bed, knowing you couldn't get sleep, tossing and turning. He hated not being able to do anything about those visions. He knew that was to haunt him for years to come.

_'…' _Naruto walked past Ichiraku, shaking his head. Sadly, Naruto was feeling warily of ramen right now. His stomach was at its normal state but he feared he still wouldn't have the strength to even choke down egg noodles. So, he walked by, sad he couldn't get his normal fix. But on this day, he should have be wary after all. Of all days, of all days they had to meet, why it had to be today? Naruto groaned at it, darker memories beginning to rise up. He pushed them down and stared back at the road.

After all, should he really fear this day? It was October 10th, the day of his birth, and the day of the defeat and death of the Kyuubi no Kitsune: terrorist of the village 13 years ago. Only it wasn't a merry day, and the supposed defeat of the Kyuubi was accurate, but not wholly correct. The demon didn't die; its soul, influence or something else intangible lived though him, it could never be killed. Its will was fire itself; it burned until it could not burn anymore. The demon was an eternal flame, living through his soul and its memory lived through others.

The demon's defeat left a wake of grieving souls who was soon tempered with hatred, darkness, and revenge. They itched to get some reparation, some repayment for what they lost. They sought it in him. And many October 10ths before, they had gotten exactly that. Naruto was grateful it was slowly not happening but no matter what, he was still wary.

_Forget it,_ he willed. _'This is the earliest I ever gotten up since I joined this team. I could train a little. It's nice, it's serene and I don't have annoying Sasu_gay _and _Cock_-kashi _(1) _to mess up my training session.' _Smiling minuscule and forcefully at his joke, Naruto grabbed some of his equipment on his belt (utility belt like Batman, Naruto smiled) on the grass.

He sat down, arms crossed looking at it.

_'Smoke bombs, check. Small set of Kunai, check. Shuriken stars, check. Ah, the pouch.' _Naruto reached for the medium-sized round pouch around the utility belt he had. Digging shortly in the pouch, he smiled at the item he had in his hand.

It was a red-tipped scroll. It was rolled up like toilet paper, holding a bounty of information in it. Naruto remembered how Kakashi handed out the scrolls the three earned since they figured out their elemental affinities and the skills they should improve at. Kakashi came the next day, as promised, with those scrolls, two for each. The first scrolls, (except Naruto's kenjutsu scroll) contained a set of E to D Ranked techniques for each elemental field. It had been only two days after that day. They had adjusted to their new scrolls, given techniques in the scrolls. Sasuke trained on his taijutsu and the newer fire techniques he had gotten. Naruto worked more on Kenjutsu and tried to adjust to Wind. Sakura tried to use Genjutsu – on Naruto of course – and use some healing techniques she seem to get down fast (by punching Naruto and healing him). Things were going fast and smooth with everybody so far.

Happily, even Kakashi got to read some chapters of the newer issue of Icha Icha.

Naruto and Sakura had gotten the weaker scrolls because they weren't as adept in elemental jutsu, he figured from their former techniques. Sasuke, however, was more adept at Fire-styled techniques since his clan revolved around Fire-breathing and such. Sasuke's techniques were a little higher, to C-Rank at least. He did see him do the _Great Fireball Technique after _all and according to Kakashi, that was C-Ranked. Actually, Naruto wasn't too jealous Sasuke's prowess in fire techniques.

Frankly, Naruto though Wind techniques was awesome. Wind, in its basic form was made to cut anything and anyone. Sasuke had mocked how Naruto's Wind aptitude was pathetic and useless, (as did Sakura after Sasuke said it) but Kakashi vouched for Naruto, saying wind could cut through anything cleanly, like the chakra paper Naruto saw before. Wind could cleave tangible things in a second. The weakest of techniques could cut tree stumps, the strongest of techniques could blow trees out their sockets.

Now, Naruto, given that his love and aptitude for Ninjutsu over Tai, Gen, and Kenjutsu was very evident, he was tempted to spend up chakra trying to a basic E-rank technique or a D-Rank technique, but knowing how much a sadist his sensei was, Naruto decided it wasn't too wise. Naruto reached for his back and smiled at the item in front of his face. Right there, was a bokken, made of bamboo and oak. The wooden sword was as long as a standard katana and much more lighter than a katana, although still pretty heavy. However, Naruto was used to it. The wooden blade wasn't that bad. And besides, it did hurt. Not enough to cause irreparable damage like metal, but wood was pretty fierce.

Naruto had gotten the bokken from Kakashi yesterday and tried to train non-stop until he had enough energy to drag his carcass to bed. Naruto liked the bokken. Given it wasn't super-cool and effective as a real sword, but it was temporary. Plus, it was slowly helping his kenjutsu skills, right?

Naruto grinned, hatching an idea. "The _**Kage Bunshin**_ technique will come in handy.... I get a training partner and can increase my sword techniques. Plus, the clone can give its memories." Naruto had figured out that secondary effect of the Shadow Clone technique the night he first used it. By his clone dispelling or "popping" out of existence due to somebody's doing other than himself, he could receive a rush to the brain. This rush was information transferring to him via his clone's mind, which was his mind too, technically.

The shadow clone copied everything off of Naruto: from tangibility, to looks, to physical stances, to organs, blood, his personality and memory. The clones were him and he was them. He evenly distributed his chakra set to them, making it difficult for anybody to figure out the real him. The clones could even perform any technique he had in mind. They were perfect, except they did not have that durability he had, which was a drawback for the technique. Other than that, awesome technique Naruto had in his arsenal.

In any case, Naruto quickly made the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu hand seal (Tiger hand seal with left and right, creating a cross) and split his chakra into threes – him and his clones having 1/3 of the original chakra set. The two stood, every amount of gear on them. The bokken was left in their armpit just like when Naruto held his wooden blade in his armpit, while doing the technique.

Naruto Prime (The Original) rested the bokken's "blade" part, holding the taped-wood handle in his hands. Calmly, he said to the other, "So, ready for some training 'fore Kakashi-sensei and company comes?"

Naruto II (The First Clone) smiled, throwing a thumbs-up, "Ya bet, boss!"

Naruto III (The Second Clone) nodded wordless, holding the bokken straightly in his hands.

"Now guys, strictly Kenjutsu and Taijutsu." Naruto Prime ordered. "This is just a spar. We aren't trying to kill ourselves now."

"Yeah." III said, nodding accordingly. "We know already is trying to kill us."

II shivered. "Yeah, that damn Cock-kashi."

Naruto Prime grinned foxily. "So, let's just have some fun. First one to have the other down and have their weapon to the other's neck wins."

"Ready?" Naruto Prime asked rhetorically.

The two clones watched Naruto readjust himself to an awkward stance, as they did, awkwardness still plaguing them. Despite them training non-stop for five hours since they gotten home, Naruto's stance was still not as skilled. Because the help of his clones, the skill with a wooden sword has increased greatly over one night. Five hours of training had become five days of training with the clones. However, they did not work on a comfortable stance. All they were doing was crouching slightly, arching their backs uncomfortably. All three held their guards up well for somebody who started just yesterday learning Kenjutsu skills. They were glad with five hours/five days of training, they had felt perfectly fine with the weight of the bokken.

Naruto Prime withdrew a breath and glanced at Naruto III to his left and Naruto II to his right. They circled him, as did they circled themselves. Their blades rested guardedly in their hands, begging for somebody to make the first move. Suddenly, Naruto Prime shot out, kicking at both of the two clones, but failing to hit. The two connected with a bokken smack to his kneecaps though, making Naruto grunt slightly in pain and making him drop to his back. The two clone tried doing a impale-like technique, but Naruto did a kick-up before they connected with him.

While their wooden blades connected with grass, they recovered quickly and charged at Naruto Prime. Naruto Prime spinned around Naruto II and the bokken of Naruto III came at II. II fortunately rose his bokken in time to block the other cloned bokken and then tried to backhand Prime with his bokken. Naruto rose up with his bokken and connected with II's bokken. All three locked their blades, struggling to get control from the other. Finally, tired of the struggle, Naruto II dropped to his back, letting III's bokken to pass over his downed form and collided with Naruto Prime's skull. Naruto Prime's in return used an impale technique seen earlier on III. Because the momentum was broken when they were struggling for control, the two attacks were not as solid. They barely hurt them. However, the first Naruto clone came back, using a 360-sweep, sweeping off the two off their feet. Then, it seemed to do a breakdance technique, spinning on his head while the bokken rested for a second on his head.

Naruto Prime laughed, looking at the spinarooni (2) the clone pulled. "Hehe, we watch too much WWE videos and Samurai Champloo, ne?"

The third Naruto laughed as well, looking at the clone finish the breakdancing move. He gripped his bokken and tried to rap it on Naruto Prime's head. However, Naruto lightly hit the clone with his elbow and spun around, doing an unorthodox kick to his head, with one of his hands placed on the matted grass area. The Capoeira kick wasn't lost on the III as he knew all of Naruto Prime's move of course. He caught the kick and watched as Naruto II tried to dropkick Naruto Prime. Naruto Prime move up quickly in III's grip to avoid the move and spun out of Naruto III's hold. Naruto plopped on the floor and laid on his side for a second before Naruto picked up his bokken and used both his left leg and bokken in his right hand to sweep the others off their feet. They only jumped over the sweeping attack but was surprised by Prime's more original maneuvers. He spun off the ground, feet springing up like a coil and used a rising impaling technique. It didn't hit anyone but it damn sure surprised the clone.

II blinked. "Damn, Prime, what was that?"

"Eh." Naruto shrugged modestly. "It was something I just came up."

"No kidding." III said. "If it was something you usually do, we probably would have sensed it."

Naruto smiled. "Well, maybe that's why I did it. In any case, you guys wanna continue?"

"Let's do one or two minutes and then quit." II looked at his watch. He showed the others of what time it was. It read "8:53". The clone smirked, as did Naruto Prime and Naruto III. "Time flies when you're having fun with yourselves."

Naruto Prime and III blinked at him and then at each other, finally at him again. Their faces crinkled in disgust.

Suddenly, II crinkled his face in disgust, knowing the feelings the other two was feeling – Naruto and his clones had the feelings to read each other minds and were empaths to each other – and spat at the ground, scowling. "I DIDN'T MEAN _THAT_, DUDES!!"

III shook his head, as did Prime did. "You definitely sounded like that."

II blushed. "H-Hey, it ain't like that at all! 'Sides, we all had naughty dreams about girls we like."

Naruto Prime blinked. "What? 'Girls'? There's only girl for me and that's Sakura-chan!"

II scoffed. "Man, whatever. Sakura-chan is a B-I-T-C-H anyway!"

"Don't go insulting my Sakura-chan!! I'm surprised you can even spell that!!"

"....Prime, boss, you do know ya insulted ya self, huh?"

"Argh!! That's besides the point!! Sakura-chan is the only girl for me!! Besides, I don't dream about anyone else!!" Prime screamed back.

"Oh?" II smirked slyly. "Don't remember da threesome ya was dreaming about Ino-chan and Sakura two nights ago?"

"Well, that's because Ino-chan's pretty haw- wait, whut da fuck?!! I don't like Ino-chan!!" Prime blushed.

"Liar! Ino-chan's the girl for us anyway!!" II squealed girlishly. "She's soooooo hot!! We digs the blonds like us. Pink is sooooo stupid!!"

"TAKE THAT BACK, YOU TRAITOR!!! NOBODY INSULTS MY SAKURA-CHAN AND GETS AWAY WITH THAT!!! NOT EVEN MYSELF!!" Prime stuck his face in the clone's face, screaming loudly.

"INO-CHAN'S HOTTER, YOU IDIOT!!"

"SAKURA-CHAN!!"

"INO-CHAN!!"

"SAKURA-CHAN!!"

"INO-CHAN!!"

"Err, guys, actually," The third clone stood, poking his fingers together. "Actually... I think Hinata-chan is hotter."

"Eh?!" "Who da hell is that?" "Dude, what?" "What the hell is a 'Hinata'?" "Dude, she's kind of a weirdo. I caught her staring at me before."

III shrugged. "Don't know why. She's quiet, smart, attractive..." Then, a not-so-innocent smile came to his face. "Plus, I heard da quieter ones are da freaks."

Prime and II blushed hotly, actually taking time to daydream about the weirdo girl, sans without contempt and confusion they had before. Their faces went serene to embarrassed, until they were barely holding back drool. They both mumbled along the lines of "_Hinata-chan take that jacket off. I'll give you a treat if you do._" III couldn't catch most of the daydreaming talk, only making out "Ramen", "Hinata's chest" and "broth".

III coughed in his hand. "Err, the clock says 9:02. Should we dispel, cause no doubt Kakashi-sensei and the team will come soon."

"Err, sure. You guys can go now." Naruto waved off, obviously distracted now. Mind playing off with Hinata-chan, Sakura-chan and Ramen-chan now. "Go."

"B-But I wanna daydream about Hinata-chan and Ino-chan!!" II whined. "Nuuuu!!!"

The two clones were dispelled by Naruto quickly. Naruto almost couldn't feel them pop or his chakra the clone borrowed returning to him in a rush or the memory rush he gotten.... Well, he didn't feel the battle. All he could mumble now about Ino-chan, Sakura-chan, Hinata-chan all covered in Ramen in a bowl and how he was tasked to suck off the noodles on them and the broth on them.

Kakashi's lessons further didn't get to him until Sakura hit him for daydreaming instead of training. Even still, he mumbled distantly about those three girls.

…

"Naruto."

"Mm?" Naruto grunting, running up and down the tree for a second, until he released himself. He turned his head to his sensei. "Oh, sensei, whatchu want?"

Kakashi shook his head. "Naruto, you could have continued your technique."

"Err, I stopped to listen to what you had to say."

"Did I say 'could have'? I meant, 'do it or else'." Kakashi smiled, hearing his blond student groan. "But since you down here, forget training for a minute. I might as well tell you guys that you're getting most of the day off."

"Why sensei?" Naruto asked. "Thought you say we aren't going to get any day off unless some holiday..." And then, Naruto was hit with the realization, of why he didn't want to even wake up today. "It's the..."

"That's right." Kakashi said, in place for Naruto. "It's the annual Kyuubi Festival."

"What? October 10th already? Eeeeehhhh!!" Sakura squealed in joy. "I LOVE the festival. It's so fun."

Kakashi smiled and nodded. Sasuke shrugged, "Eh, I haven't been to the festival since..."

Kakashi frowned as did Sakura when Sasuke's fist seemed to clench and release tightly. _'Bad memories brought up, eh?'_

"Anyway," Kakashi changed the subject. "The festival is going down, starting at 5 and going on until 12 at night. I suggest you guys to go."

"Eh. No can do, Kakashi-sensei."

"Eh? Naruto, you gotta go!!" Sakura growled. "You disobeying Kakashi-sensei?"

Naruto shrugged, placing the bokken over his shoulders. His face started to shadow into his wild golden hair and blue headband. His voice became more sarcastic than usual, despite him speaking with his crush. He didn't realize how mad he had made his crush, or why she even care about him going or not. "I decided not to go. He only 'suggested' it. Doesn't mean I gotta follow with."

"NARUTO!! WHY I OUGHT-"

"Sakura, enough." Kakashi rose his hand to Sakura before she went off. Kakashi then smiled at Sakura and Sasuke. "You guys go on ahead. I'll talk to you guys later at the festival."

"But-"

"Eh, I'll be here only for a second with Naruto. Maybe I can persuade him to come with us." _'Yeah right.' _Kakashi said to himself. Despite that thought, he really wanted to speak to the boy.

After Sasuke nodded and left, Sakura left as well, albeit at a slower pace. She was peaked by curiosity, which made Kakashi groan. _'Geez, why can't this be a day where she doesn't give two craps about Naruto? Might make it easier.'_

He turned back to the kid, who looked down. "Sit." He ordered.

Naruto complied, sitting on the matted grass. Kakashi sat down too. He was tired of standing away. "Kid, I know why you don't wanna go."

"If you know, why are you bugging me?"

Kakashi sighed. "Kid, I want you to know something. Your life wasn't made to be easy." He ignored the "No shit, Sherlock" scoff and went with what he was trying to say. "Yondaime picked you for a reason. A very special reason."

"Heh." Naruto laughed, dropping his bokken carelessly. "You know I actually looked up to the guy. When I saw and heard how he sacrificed his life for this village to kill the fox, I was in awe. And then, _bam!_, right there, I choose to achieve the title of Hokage. I choose it out of recognition, out of pride for my village. Even after learning the truth, even after everything that's happen to me, I still love this village and I still want that title."

"Naruto, you're aren't very far from it." Kakashi said truly. "Your skills have great improved the past month. You went from stupid Naruto with abysmal skills and great potential to stupid Naruto with good skills." Kakashi tried to force a smile on Naruto's face, but it made Naruto look more grim.

"That's just it. I'm tired of being stupid. I'm tired of being lied to.... Old Man, Sarutobi, the guy who I fucked trusted with my life, was keeping a lie from me. He kept a secret from me for 13 years. The whole village did, despite them be so blunt and blatant about it." Naruto huffed angrily, kicking some dirt. "And still, still I care. I care about them. I want them to respect me."

"The desire to be respected is something to be ashamed of, Naruto."

"Yes it is, 'cause I suffered so much from them, and for what? Something I couldn't control. Ha!" Naruto snorted. "You know, I wish sometimes I didn't care anymore, that I just leave this village or hurt them like they hurt me.... And then, I vomit." Naruto shivered. "I would _hate _to hate them. I would hate to be somewhere else. I just love this village too much... But they don't love me."

"These people are fickle, Naruto. Kyuubi has taken a lot."

"Yeah, I know." He said ashamedly. "And that's why I don't hate them, 'cause I know they're hurt. And I'm sorry for their loses. I can't help but feel guilty about wishing ill of the village but just sometimes...." He trailed off, hitting the ground numbly. "You know."

Kakashi nodded. "Like I said before, Yondaime picked you for a reason."

"What?" Naruto said tiredly. "Why would he pick me? Didn't he think about what my parents would say? Didn't he care about destroying somebody's family? And why, why would my parents let this happen? Didn't care about me, love me?"

Kakashi bit his lip in his face mask. _'Doesn't even know at all. Poor kid...' _"Kid, I'm damn sure your parents cared and loved you. As for their choice, there was none at the time. Yondaime had no choice. He had to do it. He had to. He had to stop the carnage at any cost."

"Why didn't pick anybody else, though? Didn't he think I would suffer the consequences?"

"And what would you say if he _didn't_ pick you? What if we could go back in time and reverse rolls? What if these children were people you know and care about? What if it was Sasuke or Sakura?"

Naruto shook his head. "It's not that I wished it to be somebody else despite me saying it. It's just that..." He sighed. "I wonder what would change if I didn't have that fox in me? Would I live happily with my mother and father? Would I have a sister or a brother? What?"

"Kid, all I know is, you wouldn't be you."

"Eh?" Naruto blinked in confusion. "Whatchu mean? I'm me! I'm always going to be me."

"The Naruto here has something to strive for. That gives you strength. But what if you did have your parents? Wouldn't that spoil you? Wouldn't that make you soft? Kid, not saying having a orange demon fox in you is awesome and you should love your predicament, but believe it or not, the fox gave your something to strive for. Your hard knock life gave you the drive to become somebody to look up to. If you had a chance, it doesn't mean everything would be hunky-dory."

Kakashi stood, brushing his pants off, looking at the boy staring up at him. "Naruto, don't live in the past. It clouds your judgment and stops you from reach the future. The fox isn't a curse, but it isn't a gift. It's something you gotta wear for the rest of your life. You don't gotta wear it with pride or with shame. You gotta just wear it."

"Things won't get better because you get a moment to cry about it or a moment's rest. If you want things to happen, ya gotta work hard for it. After people see you do that, you'll get that standing ovation you want. You can't stay in one place, wondering if things turned out the way you would like it, and just standing in front of an attack. A ninja's life is a battlefield, whether or not you're on the actual battlefield. You gotta keep yourself in check or you'll checked out."

"Heh, it's like that, huh?" Naruto asked.

"It's like that."

"Kakashi-sensei, did you go through something like this?"

Kakashi nodded. "Naruto, my team were a bunch of rag-tags I see in you three. We were foolish with childhood; I always tried to be an adult, to be far from my team as possible. But as time grew, I became a child again and I actually cared about them... It wasn't until it was too late that I cried." Kakashi calmly steady his voice, despite the sorrow ringing in his eye. "They both died a horrible death and this was the time of the war. I keep thinking after that, 'What would happen if I tried to be friends with them, if I didn't let my own problems cloud me?' but then, I realized that you can't stay in one place, thinking about the past. You gotta move on. If you gotta cry about it for a hour, do it and then move on, 'cause if you don't, you'll end up dead."

"No matter what Naruto, you'll be excepted on my team and that's it. Nobody is to tell you different. If you don't got anyone, I'll protect you. You guys can always come to me. We're your family now."

"Kakashi-sensei." Naruto's eyes brimmed with light tears. "Thank you..."

Kakashi nodded silently, smiling a little through his face mask. "Naruto, if you choose to not come to the festival, you don't have to. I just wanted you-"

"Yeah, I got it. No, I don't think I want to." Naruto then shut his mouth. "I wanna earn the right to feel welcomed at that festival."

Kakashi smiled at Naruto gently. "Alright kid, I'll let you go."

"Alright." Naruto rose and walked past Kakashi, until Kakashi spoke again.

"Hey kid."

"Yeah?"

"Happy birthday."

_**A La Fin! ...for now!!**_

OMAKE!!! 3

"So, Prime. What are we doing today?" A clone said, to his left. Naruto II shuffled impatiently at Naruto Prime's side.

"I think we should take a little break from the norm."

The second clone, Naruto III to his right raised a golden eyebrow. "You mean how ya sit on ya ass while we do all the work and learn thousands of shit?"

"Ehehehe," Prime sheepishly rubbed his head and nervously said, "Ah, yeah, yeah, okay, so maybe I_ do_ do that often...."

Sighing, the second clone said, "So, what you, err, _I_, err, _me_, errr – shit, dammit! What's the plan?!"

"Are we gonna stuff Sasuke's underwear with ketchup-stained Tampons and replace his shirts with bras?" The first clone laughed. "That was funny shit."

"Hahah, nah." Prime said, grinning, "I got a better idea."

"Better than when you replaced Kakashi's Icha Icha book with a Yaoi book?" III interjected again, smirking evilly. "The look on his face when we gave him 'Boy Toy: Volume I' was something to shit your pants by laughing."

"Even betta! Though, I can't say those two lovely memories will be forgotten." Prime sighed contently, his heart fluttering in happiness. "It's good to have _**Kage Bunshins**_ at your disposal! More pranks to accomplish!"

"Sooo, what we gonna do?" II said.

Prime smirked. "Ya guys remember those WWE tapes we watched back when we had nothing to do at Old Man Sarutobi's place?"

"Yeah, I remember, of course! We're _you_, dumbass!!" II made a face to Prime, angering him. III shook his head, constantly being reminded that Naruto was still insulting himself. Prime remembered how annoying Naruto II could be.

"Well, remember the match called 'Royal Rumble'?"

III shook his head, annoyed how II just told Prime that they knew everything he knew and it went over Prime's head. "Yes, yes, we know."

"Well, do you where ya standing?" Prime grinned. "We're in a replica of a WWE ring."

The clones – since they retained the same amount of intelligence of Naruto – didn't notice the ring at first. But now, they see it in its glory. White mat, four black turnbuckles prodding out the grounds. A WWE logo was on "Holy shit, dude, how the fuck you do that?"

"Eh. I _**henged**_ our training grounds." Prime said. He smirked then. "Though you guys knew everything I knew."

"Like I said once in this damn fanfic, we don't figure out what you wouldn't usually do. The ring... is a bit eccentric, don't you think?" III said, sweatdropping. "We going have an actual Rumble?"

"Whatchu you think, III?" II said sarcastically again, grinning at his boss. "Boss, I gotta hand to ya, ya sure know how to treat a clone right."

Prime and III blinked at him and then themselves and finally at him again. II made a face, knowing what the hell they were thinking. "Before you ask, NO, I'M NOT!!"

"Riiiiiiight...." Prime said, rolling his eyes. _'Soooooo gay...'_

'I HEARD THAT!!'

III sighed, more annoyed now. "Can we just get this on the way, _already_? It's enough you do something as weird as this, Prime."

"What are ya, my common sense?" Prime asked rhetorically, scoffing at his clone.

"Yes." III deadpanned.

"No wonder you seem like a Sasuke-wannabe."

III tried to ignore his jab but was still very angered at the insult. No matter what, Naruto III was still Naruto and they all hated Sasuke Uchiha very much. "Being common sense is still not enough. Unfortunately, I gotta also share the same IQ as you."

"So what? It's as big as my-"

"WHOA!! CENSORED, CENSORED!!" II said, making beeping sounds, flailing his arms around like a bird. "YOU HAVE BEEN CENSORED!!"

Prime blinked. "What? I was going to say 'Neck'."

"O-oh." II said lamely.

"Well, _that's _big too." Prime said, neither sly or shy. As if he simply stating the truth. "_Anyway_, you two, make 18 more clones to step into this ring. And get ready for some good ol' wrestlin' and we'll finally settle this!!"

"For what, boss? The WWE championship? Doesn't, like, Randy Orton (3) got it?"

"NO! _Idiot_! Why would we do that, when we got something more important in hand!!We're going to finally settle who's the sexy chick in the _Naruto_ universe!!"

"It's Sakura-chan of course." Prime prided. And he was right, until he was hit in his left by II.

"No, INO!!" II was dropped kicked by III.

"HINATA!!" IV got to him.

"Fuckers!! It's TENTEN!!" V used a DDT.

"WHO DA FUCK IS THAT?!! SOME FILLER CHICK?! NOBODY GIVES A SHIT ABOUT FILLER!! ISABARI IS THE SEXIEST CHICK ALIVE!!"

"FUCKING HYPOCRITE!! IT'S ANKO!!"

"NO!! IT'S TSUNADE!!" "KURENAI!!" "YUGAO UZUKI!!" "MORE BITCHES THAT NOBODY GIVES A SHIT ABOUT!! YUKI-HIME IS THE BEST!!"

"NOOOO!! KONAN FROM THE AKATSUKI!!" "WHAT, MOTHERFUCKER! THAT AIN'T UNTIL SHIPPUDEN!!"

"So, I guess I can't say Deidara, huh?" "THAT'S A DUDE, NINJA!!" "NO, I REFUSED TO BELIEVE SO!!" YEAH, HAKU'S A GIRL TOO!!" "GAY GUYS!! NEXT, YOU GONNA SAY SASUKE'S A CHICK TOO!!"

"Er... maybe I shouldn't say it then??"

"NO!!" Everybody else coursed against the guy who had theorized that the reason Sasuke was moody was because he was always on a period and therefore, he was a she instead!

And so the idiots known as Naruto Prime and Naruto II-XIX wasted their time arguing about who's the hottest chick in the fucking manga and anime of _Naruto_, when in fact the most sexiest bitch of _Naruto_ was the same watching them fight in Naruto Prime's belly.

Kyuubi no Kitsune scoffed, hearing the noises from outside wake Her up from Her"What fucking idiots." She muttered, and went back to sleep like the vixen She was.

_A/N: Finally, the Ryu has come back!.... to Fanfiction. Haha, hey guys, done with another chappie. Yayz for me. Well, sorry it felt rushed and not enough of action for ya. I had to pump something out before I gotta go back to school. Yes, yes, the insufferable fucking school year is back in my life in three days tops, so I bumped this fast. Hope ya had some laughs and ladies, don't be offended at the jokes._

Reference 1 was simply a joke I heard on Youtube by Antfish. God, he's a great dubber on Youtube. Damn them for suspending his account! _ Reference 2 was to Booker T, the former WWE-turned-TNA wrestler. I don't even watch either of those but I keep tabs on stuff. Hope the Omake appease all the WWE fans out there. I gotten bored and lame, so I came up with that shit. Plus, I expanded on the idea of Naruto Prime, II and III arguing about chicks in Naruto_. Mwhahaha! I'm strange like that! =D Sorry if I went from straight up angst, to humor, to angst again in one sitting._

Yes, I think it's better not to try and make pairings. In fact, I think I'm going to rip the idea of a pairing out of little Naruto and Sakura's heads before it happens. Sasuke's not gay, although it makes a good laugh when he's thought to be gay. Not a lot of Kakashi, Sasuke and Sakura in the chapter here. I wanted to focus more on Naruto's dreams. Since I had planned to make this a Kingdom Hearts/Naruto crossover, I had made Naruto had some dreams. The fact that he was dreadful of those dreams are a failed part on me. God, the story isn't perfect but I'll try to make it good and lengthy.

In any case, the story will be slower now that school is coming up. I will try to bump out chapters and take weekend off to do some story writing and until I leave High School, Fanfiction will be ignored for some time. In other words: I will update if I truly feel the chapter is done and said.

_In other news, one of my smart reviewer caught me with a dilemma with Sasuke's elemental affinity. I did some research and I found out that in fact Sasuke's affinity is Fire AND Lightning. He gets Lightning affinity when he masters the Chidori and does variations of the technique. Given that I am not one to give Sasuke MORE power than he has – he still sucks in my opinion – I will not give him the affinity of Lightning until when he leaves Konoha. Don't want him to be super powerful for no reason. He already is going to be learning more fire jutsus than he already suppose to know._

Not much Naruto did with his Tattooing skill this chappie but I wanted Naruto to work more on his kenjutsu than that. I still won't make Naruto's storage seals permanent JUST yet. Despite me loving to soup up the hero of the story, I feel if I do, people will want my head. In any case, I hope that I did good making this chapter. Review, comment – DON'T flame please. Helpful criticism is allowed. Don't tell me I "suc bals, lolz!!!!1111!!!1" and you don't tell me why.

Hope I made you chuckle, even a little.

Laterz.

~ The "R", Ryu.


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